And One to Grow On
by Zelgadis55
Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'. Please Read & Review. ConCrit welcomed.
1. Prologue

Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: M for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Only in my delusions, which began around 1991, do they belong to me. In reality, TMNT and all related characters currently belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes', AU after that.

A/N:

I'm Australian, I therefore do not use American English. Please bear that in mind if you see words like colour instead of color. Also, I don't really have anyone I can ask to Beta so this is un-betaed, sorry. If anyone would like to Beta for me, please feel free to contact me.

Reviews and ConCrit are always welcomed and appreciated.

This story has a full, detailed synopsis, just needs fleshing and typing, (I have been busy in the last couple of weeks, haha) so it will be completed and this is likely to be the first in a series.

**And One to Grow On**

The worst thing you can try to do is cling to something that is gone , or to recreate it. - Johnette Napolitano

Prologue:

Raphael had always had a temper. In fact, he was known for it but that didn't mean he was _always_ angry, the reality was actually far from it. However, if one were to question him right now about it, he would be hard pressed to remember the last time he wasn't filled with an almost blinding rage, at himself, his brothers, at the world.

As he pounded across the rooftops, searching for trouble, fuelled by fury, like he did the vast majority of nights nowadays, Raph felt an almost forgotten loneliness sneak up its timid head to peak out through a tiny crack within his swelling rage and ducking down again as fast as it had appeared, as if in fear for its very existence. From his vantage point on the high rise buildings, Raphael peered desperately into the night.

_Where the hell were all the lowlifes that plagued this city when you really needed them._

He needed to feel like a turtle once more and he _knew_ that that was never going to happen again. Not since that night...

that night when...

He still got chills when he remembered the screams of despair and anguish coming from his brother that terrible night so many months ago.

He squeezed his eyes tightly closed as he tried to push that memory from his mind.

Raphael turned his head, suddenly aware as a sound caught his attention from below in a nearby alley. His face twisted into an almost feral grin, eager to spend some of his mood on someone well-deserving as he ran to the edge of the building which he stood upon and dropped his way down, catching himself on various window sills and pipes just often enough on the way to the ground below to avoid injury. He spied a small group of young men wearing gang colours, not one he really recognised, not that it even mattered to him, were surrounding a woman who looked to be in maybe her mid-twenties. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he noticed her terror but he didn't really care enough about anything any more to take it into consideration.

The turtle growled a warning as he approached the group from out of the shadows, noting with a dark pleasure the looks of fear filling the young gang members' faces as they turned to face him; the being they had only considered to be a dark fable haunting this city. He twirled his sais slowly, lazily, daring them to come at him and they did not disappoint. Raph allowed them to get close, surrounding him, swinging their makeshift weapons of pipes, bats and in a couple of cases, knives. He allowed them the first move, taking their hits just to drive home that he could, knowing they were too pathetic to actually hurt him so easily and not really caring besides.

"_Pissweak_!" he growled in a low tone, delighting in the way the punks started at the sound of his spoken voice before bursting into a flurry of movement, kicking and punching, slashing and slamming the pommel of his weapons into their soft, tender bodies.

Raphael was dimly aware of the woman screeching with terror as she ran desperately for her life while he took out his incessant anger on her various attackers. Before he was even fully aware of it, all the pathetic lowlifes were down on the ground, unconscious or panting and moaning in pain and fear. Raphael sneered at them, they had barely made a dent in his ire, almost nothing did these days.

He made his way back to the rooftop, pulling his way speedily up a nearby fire-escape. Wondering dimly at the pain in his left arm, he realised that one of the knife wielders had actually gotten lucky. Raph fingered the cut, inspecting it and was vaguely relieved that it wasn't deep and wouldn't even require stitches. He decided he may as well just ignore it until he got home around dawn and returned to running across the rooftops once more.

- . - . -

"Raph! Come on, man," Raphael heard a familiar but tired voice reach his ears. "Call it a night bro, jus' this once!"

Raph turned to face the caller, annoyance plastered in plain view across his face. "Fuck, Casey, jus' leave me alone already!" he snarled his displeasure, "I'm sick of you comin' after me nearly every damn night!"

"Someone's gotta... You don't have to go home, jus' come to my place instead, share a couple beers, hang with me! Like you used to," the panting human in the hockey mask replied desperately as he approached the red bandanna wearing turtle, "before..."

"Dammit Case! I said jus' leave me alone! Get the hint! I gotta be out here so I don't hurt anyone I care about!" Raphael exploded, twisting to move away again and wishing that his friend would just understand already.

"You're already hurtin' 'em, every time you take on the scum of the city alone! Keep this up, Raph an' you're gonna get seriously hurt or killed!" Casey reached out to put a hand on the turtle's arm as he pleaded. "There's already been enough loss as it is."

"For fuck's sake, Case! Don't you _dare_ try an' guilt me!" Raphael snapped, whirling around to face Casey, his fury bubbling up uncontrollably as he reacted badly to his friend's touch. Without realising what he was doing, Raph found himself shoving his best friend away violently, pushing him off balance. As Casey fell painfully to the rooftop surface, Raph was aware with growing horror that he could have really hurt his friend badly and the guilt and anger at himself overwhelmed him. He stood staring in shock just long enough to ascertain that Casey was thankfully okay before stuttering a rushed apology and running.

He _couldn't_ stay there!

He _couldn't_ risk accidentally hurting his friend again.

He _needed_ to work this anger out before it completely consumed him and he hurt one of the remaining people he loved.

But he didn't know how. Nothing was right any more. Everything was completely unbalanced with _him_ gone...

Raphael ran for what felt like hours until he was exhausted and collapsed to his hands and knees on the rooftop panting. After a few minutes, he looked towards the cloudy, moonlit sky and screamed his pain, his rage, his frustration and most of all his grief until he ran out of breath. Finally spent, he hung his head, just breathing, in and out, over and over.

Sometime later, though he didn't know how much as he had long since lost track of time, Raph felt the sudden urge to lift his head, turn and stare into the distance. He really wasn't sure what it was that gave him the urge to do so but he did anyway and what he saw chilled him.

There was someone out there, on the far rooftop and he could tell it wasn't Foot. Raphael squinted into the night, he needed a clearer look but the figure was too far away. He clambered unsteadily to his feet, limbs still shaky from his relentless run and started moving slowly in the direction of the figure. His eyes widened in surprise as he froze to the spot.

He could have sworn it was someone on a skateboard...

And that it was another turtle, though, the silhouette looked wrong...

But his remaining brothers almost never left the lair any more, unless they absolutely had to.

Raphael continued to stare from his vantage point at the edge of the rooftop and suddenly started as he saw a brief flash of colour in the pale light of the half moon as it ducked out from behind the clouds.

Before he even realised it, Raphael was vaulting to the next rooftop and sprinting across the buildings faster than he had ever run before, however before he could catch up, the figure, still on its skateboard, jumped over the side of the building, disappearing from Raphael's sight as if it had never even been there in the first place.

- . - . -

To be continued

Thoughts? Comments? Anything you liked or disliked?


	2. Chapter 1

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: M for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Only mine in my head. In reality, TMNT and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes', AU after that.

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 1

Raphael stared wildly around the trash strewn alleyway. If he hadn't seen signs of skateboard tracks within the dust on the rooftop, he would have simply thought that he was losing his mind. Raph was about to start searching the possible hiding places within the dark alley but he spotted a manhole cover. It wasn't quite sitting in place properly, as if it had haphazardly been dropped into place, creating a possible trip hazard for the unwary. When the red masked turtle looked more closely, he could see signs of recent movement. There was the torn remains of some shopping receipt sticking out, caught in the lip of the huge metal disk. Raph looked closely at it and saw today's date printed clearly upon it. He realised it was pointless looking around the alley as he knew without a doubt whoever it was had gone below.

Heart pounding with tension and perhaps a touch of excitement, Raphael hurriedly lifted the cover, all but running down the ladder. Sure, he could have simply dropped down to the tunnel floor but Raph didn't want to risk ruining any signs of passage. Carefully, he stepped off the bottom rung and to the side. He pulled his Shell-cell from it's pocket in his belt and switched on the light. An unfamiliar feeling filled him as he saw fresh smudges in the dirt beneath the ladder.

Someone _had_ been here!

The shape of the footsteps looked odd though, like nothing he had ever seen before and Raphael couldn't tell which way they had gone. He looked to the nearby gently flowing water, realising they were probably walking through it to hide their tracks. Raphael turned off the light on his Shellcell and stood still, listening hard in hope to hear a sign of which direction the skateboarder had gone in.

Nothing! Raphael growled softly to himself in frustration and decided to just pick a direction. After a few hundred meters, he reached a cross intersection. Raph couldn't see any sign of recent life here so he decided to check the other way instead. Finding nothing in that direction either, he decided to just go home. Leo was a better tracker than him, maybe his older brother could find something that he missed.

If he could convince his brother to actually listen to him ...

- . - . -

Cringing inwardly, Raphael entered the still lair. His home was way too quiet these days, stiflingly so. The only lights on were a small lamp in the common area, the dojo and a small strip of light peeking through the gap in the bottom of the door to Donnie's lab.

Raph could remember the times in the past when Leonardo would wait up anxiously for the hothead to return safely home but he hadn't bothered to do so for months now. It was like he had given up on every thing.

Leonardo wasn't the only one.

Raphael felt like they had all given up, one way or another and that nothing was really worth the effort any more but what he had seen earlier gave Raph a stirring of much needed hope. He took a hesitant step towards Leo's room then paused, suddenly, he wasn't quite sure just how to approach his brother. None of them really ever talked any more. They only saw each other for training and meals and when they did, it was usually in strained silence.

Unconsciously as he hesitated, Raphael clasped his left arm with his other hand, hissing as he was reminded of his injury. Decision made, Raph spun around on his feet, heading instead for the infirmary attached to the side of Donnie's lab.

As Raph rummaged through the first-aid kit, his genius brother hesitantly entered the room, "Here," Donnie spoke softly, "let me me do that."

Raph wanted to argue, he had been fine taking care of his minor injuries for months now and this time was no different to any other but something made him stop, the protest dying in his throat. He nodded and stepped to the side making room for Donatello and angled his left arm towards him.

Donatello, as always, was both gentle and thorough as he cleaned and bandaged the wound. Donnie's gaze flitted up to Raph's for a moment then straight back to his task. "... I miss him too..." Donnie all but whispered, grief soaking his voice.

Raphael noticed how he avoided mentioning his name but said nothing. He just watched silently as his brother finished bandaging his arm. Donatello turned to leave and walk back to his lab while Raph continued to watch.

"Don..." Raphael began. Donnie paused, half turning back towards him. "Did either you or Leo go out tonight?"

Donnie gave a small, hollow laugh. "Of course not."

Raph knew that neither went out much any more, not unless it was necessary, so then...

That unfamiliar feeling of hope flared briefly within again...

But Mikey was gone...

There had been nothing left but the chains of his 'chucks and the twisted remains of his Shellcell and a few other small pieces of 'inorganic materials', as Donnie had put it...

But Donnie had been the only one to actually see what had happened, Raph himself and Leo had been in a nearby room and only seen the remains when they followed the scream.

Besides, if that had actually been him earlier, surely he would have come home by now? So who was that that he had seen in the distance only a couple of hours previously?

As he mused, Raph continued to stare at his brother. He saw a flash of impatient annoyance pass briefly across Donnie's face. "Don, somethin' happened tonight..."

- . - . -

Donnie stared at Raph, hope filling his eyes for the first time in a long time, "Well, it can't have been Leo nor I. Do you think it could have been... him?"

Raph shook his head adamantly. "Can't have been. You said yourself there was nothin' left. Besides, even though it was too far for me to see properly, whoever that turtle was, was wrong somehow. The shape of the silhouette didn't look anythin' like any of us. Well," Raph smirked, he felt better than he had in forever for some strange reason, "other than obviously standin' upright and having a shell, it looked nothin' like us."

Donatello sat there, taking the news in with building excitement. Maybe Raph was wrong. Maybe he had been wrong somehow on that horrible night. Donnie pushed the disturbing images away from his mind, he was so sick and tired of those being the last memories he had of his playful, light hearted brother.

Even if this was something new as it must be, then at least it was still a mystery, something to actually look forward to investigating and perhaps researching. Donnie caught and held Raph's eye, "We need to talk to Leo too."

"Yeah," Raph grumbled, his 'good' mood evaporating, "you're right."

- .- . -

The two middle turtles strode into the dojo, full of confidence and purpose for the first time in seven months. Leo irritatedly opened one eye from where he sat meditating and glared balefully at their disruption. Donnie spoke first. "Leo, Raph saw something while he was out tonight that we really think you should hear about."

"I've told you both before not to interrupt my meditation or training." Leo spoke, annoyance obvious in face and voice.

"It's important, Fearless." Raph insisted.

"Somehow, I doubt it." Leonardo closed his eye once more and took a deep breath, attempting to get back to a state where he could just forget.

"This could be a threat, Leo." Donnie insisted in a calm, collected voice while shooting an anxious glance Raph's way.

Leonardo sighed, exasperated and opened both eyes. "With the way our psycho brother there has been taking his anger out on the city's lowlifes the last several months, I doubt there is much of any threats left other than the Foot and they have been quiet for even longer. Now, I just want to be left to my meditation. Alone!" With that said, Leo closed his eyes, pointedly ignoring them as he effectively dismissed his younger brothers.

Raph and Donnie exchanged disappointed glances, though, to be truthful, they had both been expecting this. Every thing was so wrong, so unbalanced within their home since that night and their formerly close-knit family had all but drifted apart from each other, essentially curling into individual balls. The two gave up on their older brother and started to leave the dojo but the short, furry form of their father and sensei entered the room, blocking their passage.

"Wait, my sons, I could not help but overhear you think there may be a threat to our safety?" Splinter spoke in his slightly rasping tone, his bright, wise eyes looking from Donatello to Raphael and back again.

Donatello nodded while Raph spoke, "Yeah Sensei, I saw somethin' while out bashin'... uh.. while out tonight that I think we need to check up on."

Splinter allowed an amused glint to appear in his eyes at Raphael's slip of the tongue before addressing his oldest son. "Leonardo, it would be prudent for you to at least listen to the concerns of your brothers. After all, we cannot risk losing anyone else to tragedy."

Leonardo sighed inwardly but managed to appear chagrined as he acknowledged his master. "Yes Sensei."

- . - . -

"I knew it! Raph's gone delusional from letting his temper out of control!" Leo stated snidely as he got angrily to his feet. He needed to get away from the others. This was simply insane! Another turtle? Right! Even if there really was another, who the shell cared, it wasn't going to bring their brother back. Seriously, that battle lust of Raphael's was just going to his head!

Raphael bristled at the insult, "You weren't there, Fearless so what the shell would you know? You've barely left the lair in months! You barely even acknowledge the rest of us!" Raph's voice got louder and angrier till he was all but yelling at his oldest brother.

Leonardo snorted, "Like you are one to talk! Soon as the sun is down, you're gone! The only time you _ever_ even interact with us is during training! You never even have a meal with us any more and you have the nerve to have a go at _me_?"

Unnoticed by the arguing pair, Donatello was distressed and muttering, "No wonder I never want to leave my lab."

Raph opened his mouth to retort but before he could get another word out, he and Leo were silenced by someone else's voice.

"My sons! Enough!" Splinter thundered in order to be heard above the escalating voices. When he finally got their attention, he continued softly, his voice full of pain. "I know the last seven months have been hard, on all of us. We may have lost one dear to our hearts but do not forget, we still have each other! You three are still brothers and we are still a family! We need to stop pushing each other aside and pull together as one. I will no longer allow you, my sons, to continue in this manner. Starting now!" Splinter took a breath and continued, "It is not too late so you will all go to where Raphael saw this mystery turtle and you will look around for whomever it may be. Then tomorrow night, you will all start patrolling regularly again. Together!" Splinter paused for a moment, looking from one turtle to another, holding each gaze and ending on Leonardo. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, Master Splinter!" The trio chorused obediently, feet shifting anxiously.

- . - . -

Despite Donatello packing several items of scanning and tracking equipment and Leonardo's eye for detail, when Raphael led his two brothers back to the place in the sewers where he was sure the unknown turtle had entered , the three brothers found a glorious nothing. Raph had pointed out the wheel tracks on the rooftop before taking them below and that had been the only reason Leonardo hadn't immediately dismissed what Raph had seen yet again. Donnie was certainly interested enough to suggest when they had to go out the next night for patrol that they should come back to the immediate area and stake it out for a few hours.

The following night, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo went for their first team patrol since they had lost their younger brother. Feelings were mixed for all three. No one was completely happy being forced to do this again and in particular, together but all three brothers recognised that things had to change, _needed_ to change between them. They had been pushing each other away for far too long now and it was slowly but surely, destroying them.

As the turtles raced along the rooftops, they were silent, technically the way ninja were meant to be but it felt awkward, unnatural even. They were painfully aware of just what was missing but the brothers were unable to do a damn thing to fix it and it hurt.

There was no going back...

There was no fantasy time travel...

They could only try their best to go forward.

During their first night back on patrol, they quickly and efficiently stopped a couple of muggings and pounded a small group of Dragons. Raphael still felt that familiar anger that was his constant companion trying to surge up and take over but to his intense surprise, it wasn't anywhere near as close to being as overwhelming as usual.

That night, there was no sign of their mystery turtle and it was only the reminder of the skateboard tracks in the area they staked out that convinced Raph that he was not simply imagining it. A little after three am, the brothers called it a night and went home.

- . - . -

As the sun began its descent into the western horizon, Raphael left the lair alone, making his way to a specific destination topside. It was too early for them to emerge into the human world so he travelled most of the way underground. Before leaving home, he had made sure to tell Donnie where he was going so he and Leo could meet up with him a couple of hours later. The truth was, he still didn't really feel great spending time with Fearless or talking to him so it was just easier to let his more peaceful brother pass the message on.

Raphael reached the sewer exit nearest his destination and sighed. He felt truly terrible for his actions towards Casey two nights previous and he knew it was impossible to take them back but he really hoped that Case would at last hear him out _before_ he threw him out on his shell. Cautiously, Raph climbed out of the manhole, listening carefully and watching in every direction for any sign of spying eyes. There was still a faint reddish glow on the western horizon, enough of one at least for him to make it out against the backdrop of the buildings surrounding him. Where his exit was though, was already bathed in deep shadows.

He made his way up to Casey's window, knocked to give warning that it was him coming in and then jimmied it open. He would have liked to wait for permission to enter but it was just too risky hanging outside in wait, especially since it was still relatively early. Both Casey and April knew this and willingly accepted it whenever he and his brothers visited either of their friends. As Raph closed the window again and pulled the blind shut, he heard footsteps approaching him from behind and turned around, unsure what exactly to say to his friend.

Raph swallowed. Casey stood there, staring, amazingly impassively at Raph. Raphael was always so direct, never one to mince his words, though expressing feelings and apologies came exceptionally hard to him. He found it harder than he thought he would to meet the expressionless eyes of his unusually silent friend but Raph forced himself. He had to do this!

He tentatively reached up with one hand behind his own head as if to scratch an itch. "Case..." Raph began hesitantly, "I'm really sorry about pushin' you the other night." Casey continued staring in an uncomfortable silence that Raphael found unnerving. He looked away to the side just to avoid that look and suppressed a shudder. "All this time, all these months, you've done nothin' but try ta look out for me an' be there for me an' all I've done is shove it in your face." Raph didn't add the 'literally' that he was thinking.

The human still just stood there without uttering a single god-damn word, just watched him and Raph forced his eyes back to meet the unemotional gaze of what he hoped with every fibre of his being was not now a former friend. Raphael shifted uncomfortably, god this was hard! "I came by tonight, Case, 'cause I wanted ta make sure you were okay and that I didn't... hurt you too badly an'..." he swallowed once more, "ta tell you how sorry I am."

Still no response and Raph felt a horrible dread come over him. First he and his brothers had lost the light of their small family, Michelangelo; that had been tragic and quite possibly, unavoidable given the circumstances. Now it seemed that Raph had managed to, quite literally, push away one of the few precious friends that he and his family had. "If you don't want anythin' more ta do with me Case, I understand, just say the word but please... don't stop being friends with the rest of my family."

After a moment, Casey just turned and walked away while Raph stood there, staring in shock. He had just poured his heart out! Something he _never_ did, or at least as close to pouring his heart out as a tough guy turtle like him was ever going to come. The _least_ Casey could have done was to tell him to piss off or something but he just turned and walked away! Without a fucking word! Raph worked his jaw, unsure what to do or say, not sure there was anything else that could be done or said and then realised, Casey had essentially made his choice, there was nothing else he could do but leave. Raph decided all he could do now was go back out the window and wait on the rooftop for Donnie and Leo to come meet up with him but as he was about to head back out and go up, he heard Casey's footsteps returning. Raphael looked back towards the doorway Casey had gone through and waited for him to approach.

The former hockey player's face was still unreadable and Raph dimly noticed he held something in his hands. All of a sudden, Casey moved and the object was flying hard and fast, directly at Raph's face!

- . - . -

To be continued

Thoughts? Comments? Anything you liked or disliked?


	3. Chapter 2

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: M for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Only mine in my head. In reality, TMNT and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes', AU after that.

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 2

Casey had essentially made his choice, there was nothing else Raphael could do but leave. Raph decided all he could do now was go back out the window and wait on the rooftop for Donatello and Leonardo to come meet him but just as he was about to go out the window and head up, he heard Casey's footsteps returning. Raphael looked back towards the doorway Casey had gone through previously and waited for him to approach.

The former hockey player's face was still unreadable and Raph dimly noticed he held something in his hands. All of a sudden, Casey moved and the object was flying hard and fast, directly at Raph's face!

In Raph's shock, he almost allowed the thrown object to slam into him but at the last moment, his nineteen year developed ninja reflexes automatically kicked in and he caught the cold object.

'Wait a moment, cold object?' Raph tore his shocked gaze away from Casey to look down at the caught item; a cold can of beer. Raph stared, dumbfounded until an amused snort of laughter caught the turtle's attention and he looked up again, seeing Casey doubled over with laughter and barely holding himself up against the nearby door frame.

"Good thing ya looked... away... when ya did... ya bonehead!" Casey struggled to get out between his fits of laughter. "Seriously dude... I couldn't hold... that straight face... any longer!" He slid down the door frame, unable to remain on his feet he was laughing that hard while Raphael stood there twitching as he watched.

Raphael felt completely indignant. Casey had just made light of his sincere apology!

He didn't make those things for just _any_one!

Apologies meant putting aside your pride and Casey had just stood there having fun at Raphael's expense!

He... he...

Raph's mouth twitched up at the edge against his will.

Casey had acted just like Casey.

Raph smiled, of course his friend forgave him. He knew exactly how it was to have to reign in a temper. It was a small part of why they always got along so well.

"'sides, bro, my gramma would've knocked me down harder 'an you!"

Raph couldn't help but start to chuckle, laughing for the first time he could really remember and walked over to help Casey up. He extended his hand down to his friend and Casey managed to stop laughing long enough to grab it but instead of allowing Raph to pull him to his feet, he suddenly yanked the turtle down to the ground as well, guffawing in amusement at Raph's expense once more.

As Raphael crashed down, partially on top of his best friend, it was that moment that Raph knew for sure that he and Casey were good.

- . - . -

The next couple of nights patrolling were pretty much as uneventful as the previous night had been. Raph, Donnie and Leo foiled a few muggings and a couple of break-ins. Casey joined them for a few hours once before leaving, uncomfortable with the still somewhat strained atmosphere between the three turtles, though Raph promised Casey that he would join him alone for a night within a few days. Leo wasn't pleased to hear that but Donnie sure was. He felt, after so long of staying home, that going out patrolling every single night was just too much and he knew that he would relish a night off to relax with a project or two.

It was nearly eleven pm and the night so far had just been too quiet. The three brothers were considering just heading instead, to their stakeout spot when they heard a loud voice laughing with abandon.

Donatello gave a tight smile, "It sounds as though someone is at least enjoying themselves." he commented, looking sideways at his brothers. "They aren't far away either."

"It has nothing to do with us." Leo dismissed. "Come on, we need to get a move on."

Raph rolled his eyes as Leo began to lead the way away from the laughter when Leo suddenly paused, cocking his head as a familiar sound reached his ear slits. He turned, watching and listening in the direction the sounds were coming from. The faint tinkle of metal and thwack of wood striking flesh; of piping smashing into brick and chains slamming into hard concrete and the hollow, metallic thud and rattle of them hitting a mostly empty dumpster; yells of pain, annoyance and anger and of mocking; the familiar sounds of battle, though not like any they'd heard for quite some time.

Raphael immediately began running, jumping over the edge of the roof and dropping down the side of the building, small distances at a time. Donatello and Leonardo were right behind him. Donnie shook his head at the blind insanity his younger brother displayed. As far as he could tell, Raph hadn't even paused to check for any fire-escapes, ladders or even any protrusions he could use to arrest his fall.

Leo muttered as he ran, "At least he jumped around the side from the battle."

When the two finally reached the ground, they found Raph waiting, tapping his two-toed foot impatiently. "What took ya both so long?" However, he didn't wait for a response. The sounds of battle had just stopped

Raphael ran around the nearby corner, Leonardo and Donatello at his heels. Raph stopped short so suddenly that his brothers weren't able to stop in time. Donnie thumped hard into the back of Raph's shell but Leo being Leo, somehow managed to sidestep, gracefully enough to avoid the same fate, just. He too quickly stopped short at the sight in front of them.

Splayed out ahead of the brothers were three thugs; low ranking Purple Dragons based on their tattoos. Nearby each unconscious body was a fallen weapon; a two meter long chain in a heap; a wooden baseball bat, splintered nearly in two and a length of metal piping.

"Well, someone sure went to town on these goons." Leo observed, stating the obvious as he looked from one body to another.

"They could've left some for us, geez!" Raph kicked the ground in disgust. "There's barely been anyone around causin' trouble for me to crack open for a week now!"

"Well, they left one of the Dragons alone." Leo commented wryly, pointing down the street at a distantly fleeing figure.

Raphael glanced up grunting, "Too far gone now to take 'em." He turned to look back through the darkened area, noting the nearby street light that was recently smashed.

Donatello looked towards Raph for a moment before turning back to take in all the details of the scene. "You mean it's been quieter than usual for the last few days?"

"Yeah, 'bout eight days now. Been makin' it so hard to work off my anger some before returnin' home. Guess I know why now."

Donatello spoke softly, as if afraid to spark an argument. "I had wondered why you started coming home so much later than usual."

Raph smirked, moving into the alley to look for a fire-escape. "Didn't really think anyone noticed." He shrugged. "You certainly had your head down, snorin' on the keyboard every night, uh... mornin'."

Donnie grinned sheepishly, "I may have sequestered myself into my lab more than I used to but I was still concerned enough to set the alarm systems to send time-stamps of any comings and goings to my computer." He paused before adding more quietly, "and you can't think that I didn't have the tracker keeping me apprised of your whereabouts in case of an emergency. Don't worry! I didn't tell anyone where you were or anything, I just used the information to assure Master Splinter that as long as your signal didn't halt in one place for too long, that you were fine!"

"It would have been nice if..." Leo suddenly cut off his own reproachful statement as a sound of rolling wheels from the rooftop caught his attention. "Someone's up there! Come on turtles, let's go!"

The three ninja ran up the fire-escape, as fast and as quietly as they possibly could, jumping up levels wherever and whenever they were able. It didn't take them long to reach the top and they looked around wildly, looking for the source of the noise, whether it was a spy, the mystery assailant of the Purple Dragons or even just some civilian enjoying the late night air on the roof of the building they lived in. Raphael was the first to spot the figure now two buildings over and distancing. He smirked with delight.

"There!" he pointed out, watching as the figure grinded the edge of the roof it was on before jumping high and flipping its skateboard into the air catching it as they neared the edge of roof. They didn't stop, just ran forward several steps and leapt to the next roof, throwing their board in front of their feet and jumping back on without missing a step, riding once more.

Donatello and Leonardo watched, mouths agape in pure surprise. They had never seen anyone riding a skateboard like this. Leonardo in particular hadn't truly believed in Raph's tale until that moment but now he, like Donnie, didn't only believe but was truly floored by the sheer ability the rider displayed as he performed. They watched as the mystery rider, the unknown turtle, as they saw from the silhouette, executed a spectacular flip, holding the board in hand and landing skillfully back on top.

"I told you what I saw was true." Raph exclaimed, not bothering to hide the smugness in his voice. "Come on, before we lose 'em."

Once again, Raphael didn't bother waiting for his two older brothers, he just started the chase however Leonardo and Donatello were quickly able to shake off their surprise and follow. The chase was on!

Raph, Donnie and Leo raced pell-mell after the the retreating figure but to their utter disgust, they realised whoever it was, being on wheels most of the time except for occasional jumps from one building to the next, was just too damn fast. The brothers were losing ground steadily. Leo however, quickly realised the unknown rider was heading straight towards the building that was beside the manhole cover Raph had lead them to the other night. He told Raph to continue following from the rooftops and he and Donnie would come from below ground.

As Raphael descended the ladder into the sewers, Leo and Donnie approached him from within the tunnel, the latter ever so slightly breathless.

"We found... no sign of them." Donnie panted upon sighting his younger brother.

Raph smirked at Donatello's expense, "You really gotta leave that lab more often, bro," he said, turning to face the opposite direction and ignoring Donnie's glare.

"Enough bickering," Leo stated, all business now, "We have a mystery mutant to find." Briskly, he stalked by Raph to continue down the tunnel, simply expecting his two younger brothers to follow.

As they walked, all three turtles kept a sharp eye out for any sign of recent passage. Donnie had on a pair of specialised goggles, watching the ground for any latent heat readings and holding a tracker in front, searching for any unusual readings. Both Raph and Leo continued to watch and listen intently for any sound that might give away the presence of another being. To their dismay, they soon reached a split in the tunnel and there was still no obvious signs of recent life.

Leo frowned, "We'll have to split up but be very careful. We don't know who it is we are trying to track. They may be friendly but for all we know, they could be one of Bishop's experiments, out to take us down."

Raph snorted derisively, "Right! It could also be the turtle tooth-fairy for all we know!"

"I'm just saying, Raphael, that we _need_ to be on our toes. We don't know who or what we are dealing with!" Leo retorted exasperated.

Donnie looked from Leo to Raph and back again in dismay. "I do hope you two aren't going to start a fight now, of all times." At the protest he could see forming on the mouths of his brothers, he continued, not allowing them to get in a word edgewise. "I doubt very much this has anything to do with Bishop but," Donatello held up a hand to stop Raph's triumphant comment, "Leo's right, we _need_ to be careful." He reached into his duffel and pulled out three headsets, passing one each to Raph and Leo. "I suggest we keep an open channel at all times."

Accepting his headset, Leo nodded, "I agree. Donnie and I will take this fork, Raph, you take that one. If you find _any_thing, let us know immediately. Do not try to take it on by yourself."

Raph rolled his eyes for the second time that night as he adjusted his own headset, "You're bein' ridiculous, Fearless, but fine, if I find anything, I'll call for backup like a good little turtle." With that, Raph stalked down his own tunnel, eyes and ears pealed for anything.

Leo sighed as he and Donnie started down their own tunnel. Raph was still impossible, like always. Though he had to admit, at least for the last few days, he seemed to be trying.

Several uneventful minutes passed, with nothing to show for their efforts in either tunnel when Leonardo suddenly jolted to a stop. He crouched down, close by the edge of the water they were walking beside and reached down a finger.

"Leo?" Donnie inquired, "Did you find something?"

Leo smiled slowly in satisfaction; that faint mark he noticed was dampness. Someone or something had passed through here, walking carefully through the water. It was obvious they were trying not to splash and leave tracks but they didn't do as good a job of hiding their trail as he and his brothers would have. It was almost as though whoever they were trailing had turned suddenly, possibly distracted by something from behind which in turn caused a slight ripple in the water.

"Raph, come join us." Leo spoke softly into his microphone, "We've picked up the trail."

"'bout time," Raph grumbled, "I'm on my way."

Leo and Donnie continued slowly forward, ever alert for any other signs of movement as they waited for their younger brother to catch up to them. It didn't take long as only a few short minutes later, he arrived, running close by the wall so as not to disturb any other signs.

Leo, Donnie and Raph continued walking, spread out across both sides of the waterway and less than five minutes later, they came across the tunnel's end, the water disappearing into the wall. The brothers looked around and at each other.

"Whoever that turtle was cannot have gotten through that small gap!" Donatello exclaimed in dismay. "How the shell could we have missed them?"

Raph and Leo exchanged glances as Raph poked at the spot the water was disappearing into with his sai.

"We must have passed them." Leo commented faintly. "It's the only explanation."

"But how? There was nowhere they could have been hidden!"

Leo surreptitiously pointed up.

Raph stood straight, turning his head to look at his older brothers. "I'll go back to the intersection and stand ground."

"Okay," Leo agreed, "but be..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know bro." Raph waved a hand dismissively as he and the other two turned to face the direction they came from.

Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo froze, as the strange turtle dropped down from the pipes in the ceiling of the tunnel, raising his weapons in each hand, only meters away from where they stood.

The stranger glared in obvious trepidation with a healthy dose of curiosity mixed in, "Who are you dudes an' why were you chasing me?"

- . - . -

To be continued

Thoughts? Comments? Anything you liked or disliked?


	4. Chapter 3

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated M for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Only mine in my head. In reality, TMNT and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. Leo, Donnie and Raph finally meet their mystery turtle face to face. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes', AU after that.

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 3

Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo froze, as the strange turtle dropped down from the pipes in the ceiling of the tunnel, raising his weapons in each hand and only meters away from where they stood.

The stranger's bright blue eyes glared in obvious trepidation with a healthy dose of curiosity mixed in, "Who are you dudes an' why are you chasing me?"

Donatello could hear the obvious unease in the stranger's tone, and see the fear in his stance. Seeing this light green, freckled turtle struck a nerve; it wasn't his appearance, that was clearly not right, instead it was the orange mask and the spinning nunchukus that caused the feeling, however Donnie did his best not show any reaction. Raphael, on the other hand, slightly in front and to the side of the purple masked turtle, was starting to shake with unconcealed rage. Donnie noticed Leo risk a glance at their hotheaded brother before quickly returning a hard gaze to the other turtle.

"_What kind of fuckin' sick joke is this?_" Raphael suddenly exploded, no longer able to hold his reaction back, Donnie's only surprise was that he had held out this long. "Who the _shell_ are you?" Raph demanded, eyes blazing with righteous fury as he stepped forward menacingly, the small amount of available light in the mostly dark tunnel glinting dangerously off his sais.

Donatello saw the recipient of of Raph's rage take a nervous half step back, fear flashing briefly across his face but he shifted position so his weapons were held ready to defend against the irate turtle approaching him.

"_Our brother is dead and you have the __**gall**__ to stand here in front of us wearin' his colour and usin' his weapons?_" Raph furiously continued his verbal tirade and Donnie knew there would be no easy stopping him now. "_Who the __**shell**__ put you up to this? Huh?_"

Donnie's eyes flicked back to the strange turtle in orange, noting his expression starting to become panicked, though to his credit, he somehow seemed to swallow back his fear and strengthen his stance once more.

"_Are you someone's sick idea of mutatin' another turtle and dressin' it like our brother?_" Raph paused briefly for a breath and then roared, "_**Answer me!**_" However, Raphael didn't give the stranger a chance to respond. "How _dare_ you do this to us! You're _dead_!" he snarled then burst into action, jumping the remaining distance at the smaller turtle, sais flashing as he slashed and stabbed dangerously with them, trying to catch the whirling nunchukus mid swing.

Donatello watched, anxious but intrigued to see how this would play out and doing his best to push back his own stinging emotional pain as the orange masked stranger neatly dodged his younger brother's vicious attack. This unknown turtle was definitely fast on his feet and agile, Donnie observed, though, they had already known just how nimble he was from the way they had seen him ride his skateboard across the rooftops.

Raphael was relentless as he kept attacking, putting all his power into his onslaught, not letting up for even a second as he drove the scared turtle back. Finally Raph was able to snag a nunchuku within the prongs of one of his sai and rip it brutally from his opponent's grasp, eliciting a cry of dismay from him. Raphael immediately sneered at him but the younger turtle gulped, closed his eyes and flipped twice back, bounced off the wall and landed again outside of Raph's immediate reach, his eyes suddenly open once more and it was all done in little more than a heartbeat.

Definitely fast, Donnie confirmed to himself.

"I didn't do anything to you dudes! You're the ones who chased _me_." The stranger protested as he hectically continued to dodge Raphael's constant barrage of attacks. "All the way from that building where I saved that woman! Why are you doing this?" he almost whimpered.

Raph snarled angrily, whipping his head around as he attempted to keep track of the obnoxiously nimble turtle. By the time Raphael managed to get a bead on him though, he had snapped a concealed blade out of the top of his remaining 'chuck and had somehow extended the length of the chain. Raph hesitated momentarily in astonishment as the other suddenly swung the weighted end of the now kusarigama, letting it fly straight at the red masked turtle's feet. Taken completely by surprise, Raphael found his feet whipped out from under him and he found himself slamming down hard onto his shell. Temporarily dazed, all Raphael could do was lay there, trying to regain his breath as the other turtle semi crouched in front of him, eyes wide in fright and panting slightly.

"Are... are you dudes... friends of Slash?" he asked, a small tremor in his voice, eyes flickering briefly in Donnie and Leo's direction.

There was no reply from anyone but the orange masked turtle paid for his brief distraction as Leo and Donnie suddenly shook off their own shock and took the initiative, coming to the defence of their fallen younger brother. Donatello made his way straight to Raphael to free him from the chain pinning his legs as Leonardo brandished both katana at their freckled adversary who no longer had a usable weapon at hand.

At the last moment, the younger turtle seemed to realise the fight wasn't yet over and began to dodge and weave, jump and flip around, trying any way he could to get by the blue masked turtle even though it was obvious he wouldn't be getting past so easily.

Leonardo could tell he was trying his hardest to get to the weapon Raphael had ripped away earlier. He gave a knowing half smile and within moments, almost faster than the eye could see, Leo pinned the stranger to the wall, both katana crossed against his throat. The orange masked stranger froze, and squeezed his eyes tightly closed, whimpering slightly.

By the time Leo subdued their adversary, Donnie managed to get his younger, fuming brother freed from the kusarigama chains, Raph shaking with rage as he snatched his fallen sai from where they dropped when he had been so suddenly felled. He never once took his eyes off the mystery turtle who was obviously mocking their lost youngest brother. He snarled, "What are you waitin' for Fearless, kill 'im already!" When Leo didn't respond, Raph added furiously, "if you won't, I will!"

"Stand down, Raph!" Leonardo commanded, voice icy calm as he kept his eyes front. He coldly regarded the pinned turtle who still stood stock still, eyes tightly closed in terror. To get his attention, Leo adjusted the blades, moving them slightly but noticeably closer. The response was to somehow squeeze his eyes even more tightly closed and whimper in fear again. "Who the shell are you?" Leo asked coldly in a quiet voice. There was no response so Leo increased the pressure again. "Do not make me ask again, _who are you_?"

"Mi... Michelangelo."

"Liar!" Raph spat, darting forward two steps, brandishing his sais ready to attack.

Michelangelo opened his eyes and found himself looking directly into Leo's. He swallowed and flicked his gaze briefly in Raph's direction before hurriedly meeting Leo's again. "I'm... I'm not lying! My name's Michelangelo!"

Leo felt his insides twist horribly.

Raph had been right all along.

This was obviously some sick joke or plot from one of their many enemies, Bishop or maybe Stockman or the Foot. His gaze hardened further as he kept it locked on 'Michelangelo'.

Mikey didn't dare move. He could tell, this turtle was even better than his brother and much scarier. In a small voice he asked, "So you... who are you? _Are_ you friends of Slash? Only... you kinda remind me of my bros but... you look wrong and your voices are... different. You're too big and have weird feet!"

Donnie pushed the sickening hurt inside aside to indulge in his curiosity and he glanced down at his own feet and then at the pinned turtle's, noting in surprise the difference; he and his brothers had feet similar in shape to a human except only with two, evenly sized toes but the turtle held captive by Leo had more rounded feet and three toes. For a moment Donnie wondered about how the difference the shape of their feet and how the amount of toes would affect their speed, balance and agility, not to mention how the other turtle would go about finding shoes that could fit if and when he needed to disguise himself, before pushing aside his scientific curiosity for more immediately important matters. In a gentle, calm voice, Donatello asked. "What are the names of your brothers?"

"Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello." Mikey's terrified eyes lighted briefly on Donnie as he answered before hurriedly returning to the gaze of the more obvious threat to his life.

Raph snarled furiously, "What the fuck are you tryin' to pull? Just kill 'im already, Leo, or let me do it, I don't care which!" He breathed in deeply, raggedly, "Actually, I do care, let me do it!" He raised his sais again, wanting more than anything to run this imposter through and be done with it. He suddenly wished he had never seen this... this fraud the other night on the rooftops. Raphael had been drowning in anger before for months but now, seeing the orange attired turtle so close in front of him just washed all the previously buried away pain back to the surface. His overwhelming anger had been far easier for him to cope with.

Donatello didn't know how it was even possible for those blue eyes to portray any more fear than they already did but somehow, they managed. For some unknown reason, he felt grateful that Leo reacted to Raph's rashness. Quick as anything, Leo whipped one katana away from Michelangelo's throat and unerringly swung it to point only millimetres away from Raphael's face, stopping the furious turtle in his tracks.

"I said _stand down_, Raphael! I will not tell you again!" Leo did not, for even a moment, remove his cold, hard gaze from Michelangelo's eyes.

Donatello stepped in close enough to reach out and gently touch Michelangelo's shoulder. He tilted his head slightly as he regarded the young turtle and quietly said, "Those are our names, Michelangelo." Donnie tried his best to hide his cringe as he spoke the other turtle's name.

Mikey gingerly turned his head to face Donnie, fearful of Leo's sword biting into his throat. His eyes widened in disbelief. "You... you look nothing like my bros though. Unless you count that you're turtles, weird looking triplet turtles."

Donnie chuckled softly, "Well, turnabouts fair play. You look and sound nothing like our brother either." He thought for a little before straightening up and turning, smiling slightly at Leonardo. "I think you can remove your katana from his throat now, Leo."

"Really, Don." Leo replied coolly, not moving.

"You can't be serious!" Raph snarled. "This imposter's already tried to kill us once and you want Leo to back off and let 'im go?"

Mikey would have let his jaw drop from the shock of Raph's accusation if it weren't for the uncomfortably close katana. "I did not!" he protested. "You're the ones who chased me! I was only defending myself!" Mikey tried to glare briefly in Raph's direction before muttering to no one in particular, "an' I thought Raph was psycho..."

"What was that?" Raph threatened angrily, glaring daggers in his direction; he hadn't quite heard the fake's comment but he had sure as shell made out his own name.

"Nothing..."

Donatello sighed, this really wasn't helping at all. He looked sincerely to his older brother. "He's already lost his weapons, Leo. You don't need to sheath yours but I really see no reason to keep it against his throat." Donnie not only felt Michelangelo was no threat but he was beginning to think that... He half turned to look back at Michelangelo, contemplating the three toed mutant turtle curiously.

There was silence for several moments before Leonardo finally replied. "I agree." Leo made sure he had Michelangelo's full attention, "I'll back off a little but if you try _any_thing, you'll wish I hadn't stopped Raph from killing you."

Mikey gulped and nodded carefully, he really didn't like this place and he wanted his family so badly; he didn't like feeling so alone and vulnerable. He watched Leo take a step back, still holding the katana pointed unwaveringly at him. At least it was no longer pressed against his throat though...

Raph exploded, "Seriously! Are you two insane? You can't trust... that!" he stepped forward, once more raising his sais menacingly but stopped as Donnie stepped quickly in front of Michelangelo. "Get outta my way, Don." he growled. "You dunno what that fake could do to you with your back turned to 'im!"

Michelangelo cringed as close to the wall as he could while Leo continued to watch him intently. He was really beginning to see Donnie's point but as leader, he just couldn't risk trusting this Michelangelo so easily, not after everything that had happened to him and his brothers over the last few years; not after some of the enemies they had made and some of the things those enemies were clearly capable of doing. He quickly glanced at Donnie and Raph, taking in their positions and body language before returning his full attention to the turtle against the wall.

"No, I won't and he isn't going to do anything. Can't you see he's terrified? I really don't believe he's a threat to us."

"He's worse than a threat, Donnie! He's..." Raphael paused, his glare fading slightly as unadulterated hurt filled his face ever so briefly before he quickly covered it up again, "He's a mockery to the memory of our brother... He's... he's... Ah shell," Raph threw his hands into the air and stomped away a few meters. "Jus' don't complain to me when he finally shows his true colours."

Donnie gave a brief smile before turning back to Michelangelo, "It's okay, Raphie won't hurt you."

Mikey opened his eyes again, staring unblinkingly at the katana practically still in his face. He then flicked his gaze to Leo and Raph before settling on Donnie.

Donatello gave a gently encouraging smile as he stepped closer to only a short distance from Michelangelo. He ignored the looks on the faces of both his older and younger brothers that clearly stated he was way too close and asked. "Tell me, Michelangelo, when was the last time you saw your brothers?"

Mikey swallowed, the brightness of his eyes suggesting the barest hint of tears. "Just over a week ago..."

Donatello cocked his head curiously, "What happened?"

Mikey sighed softly as he lowered his gaze to the grungy sewer floor and in a small voice explained.

To be continued

Thoughts? Comments? Anything you liked or disliked?


	5. Chapter 4

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated M for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. Leo, Donnie and Raph finally meet their mystery turtle face to face. No OC's. Set: 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'.

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 4

"Tell me, Michelangelo, when was the last time you saw your brothers?"

Mikey swallowed, the brightness of his eyes suggesting the barest hint of tears. "Just over a week ago..."

Donatello cocked his head curiously, "What happened?"

Mikey sighed softly as he lowered his gaze to the grungy sewer floor and in a small voice explained.

"My bros and I were kinda all burned out from searching for mutagen cannisters every night for months and we'd recently some bad stuff go down like when Raph's pet Spike mutated into Slash," Mikey shuddered at the memory "and then a couple of weeks later, a bunch of Footbots followed Raph and Casey to the lair so we decided to have a bit of chill time by taking a few hours off and just having some fun..."

- . - . -

_'My bros deserve this," I think as I laugh at Raph's efforts. Things had been sucktastic lately and everyone agreed to taking a break to unwind and have fun for a couple of hours tonight and play around. And whose brilliant idea did we go with? Mine, yeah, that's whose! I suggested having a Ninja-off, kinda like a Dance-off but with cool and flashy ninja moves. Donnie had already had his turn and Raph was up now._

_Sure, my second oldest bro is the strongest of us but that's sheer turtle-headed strength. When it comes to the actual moves, well, let's just say some of the rest of us actually stand a chance of taking him down. I laugh again, really, I'm up next and Raph is making this way too easy. Raph glares in my direction as he finishes up his predictably boring set. He may be good yeah, we all are but seriously he has no style._

_I snicker a little too loudly, earning a rough shove up against my shoulder as Raph stalks over to us when he finishes._

"_Let's see you beat that, shell for brains." Raph taunts._

"_Too easy, bro!" I grin, somehow ignoring the jostling. I may not be the best fighter on this team, in fact, I'm probably the worst but when it comes down to it, I'm the most athletic, especially when I just let myself go with the flow. In this kind of competition, I probably only have to worry about what Leo does after me in this party._

_I saunter to the middle of the rooftop floor, swishing my hips mockingly in Raph's direction as both a warm up and to rub it in Raph's face that this turtle's got style. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Donnie rolling his eyes at Raph's and my display but he too is grinning, knowing that for once, Raph wasn't gonna win._

_I turn to face my bros and flash another cheeky grin Raph's way, "Ready to be shown how to moooove," I sway my whole body tauntingly as I deliberately draw out the word, "bro?"_

"_Just get on with it, doofus." Raph growls menacingly, but there's no venom in his words._

"_Wait!" Leo suddenly commands, hand up in a classic Captain Ryan dramatic halt pose._

"_Aw, Leo!" I whine, "I finally got my turn, why do I have..."_

"_Quiet! I heard something." Leo is looking really concerned right now as he quickly but stealthily runs to the far corner of the building and looks off into the distance. The rest of us reluctantly follow him over, me picking up my skateboard and tucking it into my belt at the back of my shell on the way._

"_The Kraang." Donnie says softly, eyes widening in surprise as we watch several human disguised Kraang leaving a van and entering a building._

_I shudder as I hear Raph crack his knuckles. I mean, that sound! It's just horrible and he does it deliberately, knowing just how much it sets my shell on edge. It's worse than fingernails on a blackboard. I really miss my blackboard. Can't really remember whatever happened to it... Oh yeah, Raph happened to it, I remember now. Those were the times. I smother a tiny grin at the memory of Raph's annoyance._

_I turn my head to see Raph's customary smirk covering his face, you know, the one that promises hell and that he's gonna enjoy it? "Great!" Raph says through the smug look, "Could really use some _real_ action tonight."_

_Leo smirks back, amused, "You're only saying that because you can't lose the competition if we don't finish it."_

"_No I'm not!"_

"_Okay guys, we go in, _silently_," he emphasises, looking at both me and Raph carefully. I give Leo a playful pout, "and see what they are doing in that warehouse._ _Do _not_ draw attention. I want to know their plans _before_ we take them down."_

_About twenty minutes later, we are inside, having __snuck__ in through the windows in the top floor and trying to find a good spot to spy on them from while also being able to overhear the nasty little alien brain blobs. I realise the sound doesn't carry too well in this place so I shuffle along the beam I'm on but I don't notice this piece of broken ceiling resting precariously on the beam until my hand brushes lightly against it. I realise too late and try desperately to catch it before the noise gives us away. Breathing a sigh of relief, I manage to quickly latch onto it before it's out of reach and stop it from clattering to the ground making for some angry bros._

_Uh oh... I guess my sigh was louder than I thought, 'cause suddenly Kraang droids are staring up at me._

"_It is the ones that are known as Turtles that are in this place where the ones known as Turtles are not meant to be!"_

"_Kraang, exterminate the ones known as Turtles that are in this place the ones known as Turtles are not meant to be."_

_Sometimes, I really think it's a good thing the Kraang are so long-winded. I mean, it sure gives us plenty of warning to haul our shells but it's pretty bad when it gives even me a headache listening to them butchering the English language._

_I ignore the irritated and furious glares of my bros as I hurriedly throw myself to the next beam over and swing down from beam to floor to avoid being shot by their blasters. Uhh.. I guess maybe jumping to the ground the way I did wasn't exactly one of my brighter moves as suddenly find myself completely surrounded with no where to go. Gulping, I realise even more Kraang are entering the floor. As they shoot at me, I dodge and weave, duck and roll, bounce and spring about, trying to dodge their blaster fire. At least half of the evil blobby aliens are focused on me but I just can't get near them to take them out. I can't even convert a 'chuck to a kusarigama or I'd be left too way open to their fire. In all my bouncing about like Cubbi, I'm happy to see that at least my bros are fine and still together. Sadly though, there are just too many Kraang in between us. We just can't get to each other, though, from the look on his face, Leo's got a plan! Too bad I don't know what it is and that I'm too far away to find out._

_Desperately, I look around, spinning a 'chuck and taking out a nearby Kraang. Smiling, I spot a door not too far away and with only a couple of Kraang in the way. Maybe I can lead some of these blob 'droids through there._

_I grin as I switch to my kusarigama, swinging the chained weapon wide to knock several blasters out of the Kraang's hands, uh tentacles? Suckered clutches? Heh! Whatever. Specifically the ones near that door. Quickly taking the chance, I run for it! Good thing I'm so fast. Gotta remember to thank Raph later; if he didn't keep chasing me and trying to pound my shell after I annoy him, I probably wouldn't be nearly as fast as I am. "Nyer nyer!" I tease as I rush by the Kraang 'droids. After making it through the door, I slam it shut behind me, breathing deeply as I lean my shell against it to regain my breath. A moment later, I look around the room, my eyes widening in absolute horror!_

_I'm trapped!_

_Seriously! There is no way out of this room other than the door I just came in through. I look wildly around the small room. The only thing in here to even hide behind is some computer console thingamie._

_I feel someone, or more likely something, trying to open the door behind me._

_I am so soup!_

_I do the only thing I can do, run over to the console thingamie, grabbing onto the edge to help me turn the corner of it faster and hunker down behind it; fingers accidentally brushing controls as I lower myself down. I try to steady my breathing. It sounds like _only_ two of them followed me into this room, not sure at this point if that is a good or a bad thing. They are making all sorts of clicking, whirring computery noises as they approach the console thingamie I am ducked behind. Or should that be turtled behind? I grin to myself for just a moment before remembering the trouble I had gotten myself into and sobering. Realising there is a gap between the bottom of the panel and the ground, I peek cautiously through at the Kraang from underneath, watching with bated breath and finally sighing with relief as the stupid Kraang both walk around the same side of the bulky hunk of metal and plastic. Really, it's all I can do not to snicker at their stupidity. For giant brains, they sure are dumb._

_I creep around the opposite side from them carefully, I'm gonna have to take the chance of getting back out to the main room. If I don't... I swallow, not wanting to even think about it._

_Quickly glancing back to the two Kraang 'droids, I notice their attention is completely focused on the control panel. Heh! And my bros think _I_ get distracted too easily! These Kraang are way worse than me. I grin and run for the closed door, hoping to get through it before they can shoot me. I don't even dare to look back again as I run through and slam the door behind me._

_I stop moving, cocking my head in confusion... I felt something odd as I passed through the doorway, almost like that time when I was younger and got a mild electric shock. I close my eyes to block distractions as I think back. This feeling was kinda the same but less..._

_Suddenly I remember I'm still in a battle and my eyes fly open in panic, thinking first thing I would see would be a blaster bolt about to hit my face. In relief, I don't see anything, then I wonder why no one has noticed me and starting to shoot at me again._

_Then I wonder why it's so quiet..._

_I stare around bemused. There's no one here._

No one_!_

_No Kraang..._

_No bros..._

_There isn't even any lights on!_

_This place was lit up like one of those Christmas trees you see in TV all the time and now it's dark! The only light coming in is from the almost full moon..._

_For a moment I wonder if Donnie got to the lights but..._

_There's really no one here..._

"_Bros?" I call, wondering where everyone went. It's like a surprise party but in reverse. I swallow. I really don't like this. My bros would never just leave me..._

"_Leo?... Raph?... D... Donnie?" I call again. There's still no answer. I start to worry. "If this is revenge for that prank I pulled earlier today, it's not funny you guys!"_

_I step further away from the door and look around, continuing to call for my brothers the whole time. Then I realise... there's no scorch marks from all that laser fire! There's also dust and debris everywhere. This place was mostly clean earlier, except for the ceiling beams and the Kraang's equipment._

_I look back at the door to that room I was in not long ago and swallow nervously. I gotta chance going through there again, even if it means being stuck in a room with two bloodthirsty, evil, alien blobs. I can take them out anyway, if I'm fast. I creep back to the door cautiously and stand to the side of it. Then I hesitantly reach over to the handle, turn it slowly, quietly and swing the door open as I suddenly jump into the room yelling "_Booyakasha_!"._

_Eyes wide with shock, I stare about the dark, empty room and whimper. What's going on? "Where is everyone?" After a few minutes of stunned staring, I slink back out the room again and begin to search the entire building. Maybe I somehow just ended up on the wrong floor? But no... the building is completely empty, falling apart and abandoned._

_I peer around. I just can't believe what I'm seeing so I rub my eyes. Then I remember my T-phone and pull it out. I breath a sigh of relief as it turns on and try calling Donnie..._

_My T-phone doesn't even ring out, it's just dead quiet. I shake it and hit it, then try to call Leo, then Raph. My phone just keeps making that dead sound. I even try April and the Cheese Phone._

_There's no signal... There's just nothing..._

_Suddenly I'm really, really scared._

- . - . -

Mikey stopped talking, the hurt and fear over his situation fresh and raw. Leo stood there watching the orange masked stranger who in many ways reminded him of his own lost brother and felt a pang of sympathy for the young turtle. At some point during Michelangelo's story, Leonardo had sheathed one of his katana and while he still held the other, he had let it droop so it was pointing at the ground.

Leo glanced back at Raph, seeing the hothead was still glaring angrily in Michelangelo's direction but if he didn't know better, he might have believed he could see a small hint of compassion within his furious golden eyes. Leo snorted to himself, right!

Leonardo turned his attention back in front of him to where Michelangelo and Donnie were, seeing his younger brother give the other turtle a silent but sympathetic nod.

Michelangelo blinked back tears, refusing to let them fall in front of the turtles who had him literally against the wall. After a few moments of silence, Mikey, leaning with his shell against the grimy bricks of the old sewer passage, slid slowly down the wall till he was in a seated position. He slowly pulled his knees to his plastron, crossing his arms over them and resting his chin forlornly on them.

A few seconds later, "Go on," Leo prodded gently. "That was just over a week ago. What happened then?"

Mikey sighed, what happened next was the worst...

- . - . -

_I stood in the middle of that warehouse for what must have been hours. I wasn't even aware of the time passing until I suddenly notice it's getting lighter. The sun is starting to rise and I panic. Sure, this place seems abandoned but that doesn't mean that no one definitely won't come here, besides, I don't wanna stay in this horrible place... I calm myself down and sneak out, careful to watch and listen out for any wandering early risers as I look for the nearest sewer entrance. When I finally find one, I have to hide from a couple of early morning dog walkers but I finally get a chance and quickly make my way to... safety..._

_After I work out where I actually am and how to get home from here, I trudge tiredly through the sewers. A couple of times I need to stash myself in the shadows of the piping above me to avoid being seen by sewer workers but luckily they pass by quickly. A few hours later, I reach the abandoned subway station where my home is meant to be. _

_Where my bros and Master Splinter should be._

_I look around, it's dark and dingy. There's no welcoming warmth and light like I normally expect when coming home. The only sign of life is from a bunch of cobwebs and a few of Raph's favourite roachy friends. Completely numb, I wander slowly through the lair. There are no doors on any of our rooms. The only things around is dirt and rubbish that looks like it has washed in from past flooding. Still hoping, though not really believing, that this is just some horrible revenge prank, I hesitantly look into the rooms of my bros, saving my own room for last._

_My breath hitches in my chest. It hurts so much seeing everything so dirty and empty._

_It looks like my family has never even been here._

"_Where are they?" I whimper, lost._

_Stifling a cry, I slowly wander into the dojo or rather, where the dojo _should_ have been. There was actually light in here. I look up curiously. The grate in the ceiling that's always been there is still there, filtering in a small patch of sunlight but it's not 'diffused' as Donnie would say. I walk over and squint up into the light, wondering why it's so different when I realise the mirrors that Donnie set up years ago to reflect and redirect the light, making it seem more than it really is aren't there either._

_I look around the room sadly; the room that's the heart and soul of our lives. I've never felt so empty and alone in my life. I don't know what's going on and I've never missed my family as much as I do right now. Sobbing with loneliness, I drop down to the ground under that small patch of sunlight and cry till I fall asleep._

_The sunlight is gone completely when I wake up hours later. I'm cold and hungry and I realise that even though I'm alone now, I need to go topside to find food and hopefully answers..._

- . - . -

Mikey finally lifted his chin off his knees and looked up at Leo and Donnie, "and I've been going up for food every night since and taking out a few creeps while I'm at it. At least doing that there was someone to talk to. Kinda." He took a shuddering breath and suddenly canted his head curiously, "Weird thing though, the Purple Dragons seem to have been multiplying like cockroaches all of a sudden."

The other three turtles were silent, all of them considering Michelangelo's story in their own ways.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Leonardo suddenly sheathed his other katana. There was no threat here, he was certain of it, even if he didn't really know what to make of it all. All he knew was that he felt Michelangelo was telling them the truth, at least as far as the young turtle knew it. He looked to his nearby brother. "Any ideas, Don?"

Donnie took a deep breath and straightened back up to a standing position. "It seems to me that Michelangelo here is most likely from a parallel dimension; one in which many things are similar but also very different." He paced around the immediate area thoughtfully. "Whatever portal or dimensional crack that brought him here though, well, I don't know of anyone with technology like that. It just doesn't exist here that I know of."

Leonardo stared down at the obviously miserable Michelangelo sympathetically. "So, he's stuck here then, is he?"

Donatello nodded in confirmation, "For now, yes."

Turning on his heels, Leo walked over and picked up the fallen nunchaku and tossed aside kusarigama. He contemplated both weapons for a moment before walking back to hand them over to a surprised Michelangelo.

Raphael made a noise of absolute disgust and glared daggers at Leo from where he still stood, leaning against the wall. Leonardo ignored his volatile brother.

Mikey gave Leo a grateful smile as he took the proffered weapons. "Thanks, dude." Mikey stood up, slipping the nunchaku back into its holster and converted the kusarigama back into his second 'chuck before holstering that also.

Leonardo's eyes widened slightly in wonder. "Interesting weapon," he commented. He had wondered where Michelangelo had pulled it from earlier.

Mikey's smile faded and he sighed again, fingering the holstered weapons as if seeking comfort. Meeting these three and hearing Donatello's theory had explained much. He really was alone, though at the same time, in a weird way, he wasn't. It would have hurt his head to think about it if it wasn't for all his comics and sci-fi. He wondered briefly if his bros even knew what happened to him. He wasn't home and he might never be able to find home, not without some serious help anyway.

And while these three strange looking and strange sounding turtles were actually his brothers in some bizarre way, they had no obligation to him and now that they had sated their curiosity about him, there was absolutely nothing to stop them from just leaving him to be alone.

Again...

- . - . -

To be continued.

A/N:

I've never written in first person or present tense before so if you have any tips as to improving, I welcome them.

_Please_ let me know what you think.


	6. Chapter 5

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated T for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. Leo, Donnie and Raph finally meet their mystery turtle face to face. No OC's. Set: 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'.

Please comment. Concrit is always welcome. Thank you to those of you who have favourited or followed this story. Knowing you are interested really helps.

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 5

He wondered briefly if his bros even knew what happened to him. He wasn't home and he might never be able to find home, not without some serious help anyway.

And while these three strange looking and strange sounding turtles were actually his brothers in some strange way, they had no obligation to him and now that they had sated their curiosity about him, there was absolutely nothing to stop them from just leaving him to be alone.

Again...

Leonardo and Donatello exchanged looks before turning to face Raphael but he wouldn't return their gaze. He instead just continued to glare at this other Michelangelo. Sure, Donnie suspected he was from another dimension but it's not like his brother knew for certain. This was difficult for Raph. On one hand, Raph trusted his genius brother's judgement on such things weird or scientific but on the other, for all they really knew this was just some elaborate set-up designed to hurt and trap them. Taking this 'Michelangelo's' word for it just did not seem worth the risk to him.

Or worth the reminder.

His hostile gaze still locked unerringly on 'Michelangelo', Raph noticed Leo and Donnie turn to contemplate each other and nod before turning back to scrutinise Michelangelo.

Leo exhaled, as if steeling himself, "Well, I guess there's not really much other choice. You will have to come home with us."

Michelangelo looked up at Leonardo, "You really mean it?" he asked, his expression incredulous with hope.

Raph's glare turned into a scowl. "Are you frickin' insane Leo? We can't take... _him_ back with us! We don't know him and we certainly can't trust him!"

"Raph, he may be from another dimension but he's still family... kind of... Either way, we cannot just leave him, it's not safe!"

"How can you be sure it's safe us takin' him home? He's an unknown _risk_!" Raph all but spat.

"He may not our Mikey but he's _still_ Michelangelo." Leo sighed in exasperation. "We'll blindfold him before we leave here so he doesn't know where the lair is and _then_ Master Splinter can talk to him." Leo decided firmly, hoping those conditions would at least appease his outraged brother.

Raphael grumbled, still not happy but he acquiesced.

Mikey pulled away when Leonardo stepped forward to turn his mask and asked for just a minute. When Leo backed off, Mikey looked up to the piping in the tunnel above his head, his eyes searching. He took a brief running jump and nimbly hauled himself up. A few seconds later, Mikey lightly dropped down to the tunnel floor once more, skateboard in hand and stashed it in the back of his belt. With a hint of nervousness in his voice, Mikey looked back to Leo and spoke, "I'm ready now."

- . - . -

Since he couldn't see, the journey to the lair belonging to these strange looking versions of his brothers felt like it took forever to Mikey. Leonardo's hand was securely on his arm the whole way and from all the excessive turns and twists, Mikey could tell they were deliberately trying to confuse him. 'Not that that would be too hard,' Mikey mused wryly. At several points in the trip, they even spun him around on the spot. While Mikey knew that Leo didn't fully trust him, he felt that that was really a bit extreme, even though it was probably done to mollify Raph who continued to be vocal against his presence.

After he was spun around for the sixth time, Mikey joked, "Good thing I don't get motion sick, dudes." His joke was met with an uncomfortable and even slightly hostile, silence. 'Maybe I should have just taken my chances staying on my own...' he groaned inwardly just before painfully stubbing his middle toe, Joey Nails, on a loose brick or rock or something.

Mikey tried, he really did, to keep from voicing his cry of surprised pain but wasn't quite successful as he stopped and grabbed his foot, bouncing on the spot in pain.

"Uh... sorry," Leo muttered. "I should have realised you wouldn't see that."

He heard Raph mutter something unintelligible and probably derogatory, from the tone.

Mikey gingerly put his foot back down. He sighed inwardly, again. He really wanted nothing more than for all this to be over. He hated not being able to see and he hated feeling so distrusted and he really hated the obvious hate being directed his way from this Raph. "I'm okay, Leo, it's just one of those things that hurts for a minute and then you forget about it." He reassured with a cheerful grin. "Can we get going again? Please?" He unconsciously stressed the last word.

"Sure, we're nearly there anyway." Relief surged through Mikey as he heard Leonardo's reply.

They walked for about another ten minutes or so and Mikey was spun around on the spot yet again. By this time, he felt completely disoriented, he barely knew which was even up and was beginning to feel a little sick. Whether that was from being spun around or just the situation in general though, he had no idea.

"Okay, Michelangelo," Leo spoke clearly but quietly from right beside him. "Stop here for a moment while Don opens the door. After we get in and the door has been closed, you can turn your mask around again."

Mikey nodded, filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

A couple of minutes later, which didn't pass by fast enough, in his opinion, Mkey stood blinking into suddenly bright light. He looked all around him curiously, feeling some disappointment at what he saw. There was a lot of open space sure, but it was full of so many cold metal catwalks everywhere. There was a few homey touches to the place, a few rugs here and there, a couple of old dilapidated couches and scattered chairs but no photos or pictures or even any wall hangings. Overall, it felt kind of cold in the empty sense.

"Welcome home, my sons." A slightly raspy voice startled Mikey and he turned to see who spoke. His eyes widened in shock at the sight of a very short, very grey rat that he assumed was Master Splinter in this world.

After his initial shock of meeting his other dimensional bros, Mikey could feel that he recognised them. They didn't look or sound like his brothers but despite the fact that their personalities seemed a little different than he was used to, though for all he knew that could have just been because they seemed to be hurting so much, they still _felt_ like Leo, Raph and Donnie. This new Master Splinter though, didn't. Somehow, it was like he wasn't even the same person. At all.

And that was just plain weird.

Mikey couldn't help but stare curiously into the beady eyes that met his as Splinter gazed back, furry eyebrows raised questioningly.

"I see you found Raphael's mystery turtle." Splinter observed.

"Yes Sensei,we did." Leonardo replied bowing.

The corner of Splinter's mouth raised with an amused quirk. "Is it not a good thing then, that you did not dismiss your brother's concerns so quickly after all?"

Mikey risked a glance at Leo, noticing his face flush with embarrassment. "You dudes were actually looking for me?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes," Donatello replied. "Raph spotted you in the distance three nights ago but was unable to find you once you went underground. We've searched for you each night since."

"Oh..." Mikey simply said, not knowing quite how to feel about the news.

"We were lucky you entered the sewers in the same place you did the other night," Donnie smiled, "or we may have had a much harder time catching up to you."

"Yes," Leonardo added in a cool tone, "although, to be honest, it is more that you are the one who is lucky that it was _us_ who found you and not an enemy. If it were someone else trying to track down, it may not have gone so well. For you."

Mikey looked down at his feet, chastised. Definitely Leo alright, giving lectures freely and making him feel rightfully stupid.

"Leonardo," Splinter chided gently, "I do believe that introductions and explanations are in order."

Mikey looked back up as he noticed Splinter walk up to him and stop just a short distance away.

Splinter canted his head as he regarded Michelangelo seriously, "Though, I do believe I somehow already know you."

- . - . -

"I see. That is quite some story, Michelangelo." Splinter said thoughtfully at the end of the tale. He looked at each of the four turtles one after another before standing. "I wish to go meditate and sleep on this matter, you should all go do the same as it is quite late. Please show Michelangelo to where he may sleep. Goodnight, my sons, Michelangelo." With that, Splinter left the makeshift lounge area and went to his own room, leaning heavily on his walking stick as he moved.

Three pairs of eyes trained on Mikey, one set openly hostile, one curious and one thoughtful. Mikey met them all in turn, feeling very uncomfortable at the obvious scrutiny. "So, um..." he started to speak but was interrupted by Raph.

"He ain't takin' Mikey's room!" Raph snarled, aggressively motioning in Michelangelo's direction. "He can sleep on the couch or on the floor for all I care or just shove him in the infirmary but he ain't havin' our brother's room!" He then clambered angrily to his feet and stalked to his own room without another word.

"Probably best not to argue with Raph tonight." Donnie sighed then faced Michelangelo. "Would you prefer the couch or the bed in the infirmary?"

"Couch..."

"Okay, I'll go get you some blankets and a pillow."

"And I'll give you a quick tour." Leo said after Donatello disappeared from sight. "I'll show you the place more thoroughly tomorrow."

"'kay." Mikey muttered.

Leonardo gave Mikey a whirlwind tour, showing him the bathroom, kitchen and his own room just in case Mikey needed anything in the night.

"Are you hungry... Michelangelo?" Leo asked almost as an afterthought, failing to hide his wince as he spoke Mikey's name.

Mikey hesitated a moment before nodding. "Starved, actually. I didn't really get a chance to find anything tonight."

"Right... Well, there should be some leftover pizza in the fridge. Feel free to help yourself. I'm heading to bed now." Leo quickly said, keeping his face as emotionless as possible as he walked away. Mikey watched him as he suddenly paused and half turned back. "Oh, by the way, don't try to open the lair door. You'll set off the alarms if you do."

With that, Leonardo left for his bed, leaving Mikey feeling more lost and alone than he did when he first found himself in that suddenly empty warehouse just over a week ago.

To be continued.

AN: Kinda short, I know but otherwise it would have been too long til the next chapter break.


	7. Chapter 6

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated T for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'

**And One to Grow On**

Ch - 6

_Michelangelo lets out a whoop of pure, joyful abandon. The night is a warm, moonless and clear one and he revels in the feeling of the wind rushing against his face as he runs across the rooftops into the night. His brothers surround him, Leonardo in front, Donatello and Raphael to either side. It is a quiet evening but nonetheless, all four are enjoying themselves immensely. He gazes at Raph via his peripheral vision and can't, nor does he want, to contain the smile that breaks out over his face._

"_Stop being creepy." Raph quickly accuses but Mikey notices the corners of his own mouth quirk up at the edges and neither is there any malice in the acerbic turtle's voice._

_But tonight is a night for mischief and Mikey is well prepared, not only for himself to have some fun but for his brothers to get in on the action too; they just don't know it yet. He sees the right building looming not far ahead and slightly to the left. With his grin widening, he dashes forward, somersaulting over Leo to steer the others towards it._

"Mikey_!" Leo cries in mock exasperation._

_Mikey turns so he is running backwards and eggs them on, grinning impudently the whole while. "_Nyer nyer_! Catch me if you can, bros!"_

_Donnie shakes his head, trying to hide his vague amusement and Leo and Raph exchange glances, grinning. As one, all three begin to chase the wayward turtle and Mikey turns to face forward once more in an effort to keep ahead of them._

_When he reaches his desired rooftop, he stops, grins a cheeky, mocking grin and skips behind a long planter. He watches his incoming brothers carefully, counting down as they get close._

_Three_

_Two_

_One_

_And throws three filled water balloons with quick succession. Leo naturally dodges, Donnie and Raph both wear theirs full in the face and stop stock still._

"_Plenty of balloons laying around the roof bros, you just gotta beat me to them first." Mikey teases, continuing to grin and running for another slightly hidden stack._

_A couple of hours later, all four brothers return home, thoroughly wet; at least their gear is, their skin and shells had already dried off on the run home, and laughing._

_Master Splinter is waiting for them, with a warm, loving expression present in his eyes as they enter the lair and Mikey meets his gaze, happy, despite the glorious night they had left behind outside, to be home._

A warm, contented feeling filled Michelangelo's very being as he woke, warmer and more comfortable than he'd been in over a week. A serene smile slowly spread across his face as he lay there; he didn't feel like opening his eyes yet, he was happy just revelling in this wonderful feeling of being loved for a while.

It didn't take long before he began to wonder why the bed beneath him didn't feel like his own, nor did it feel like the cushioned bench they used as a couch in the pit; after all, it wouldn't have been the first time he had fallen asleep there. Then he frowned as the nightmare memories of the last lonely week intruded, flooding into his mind and with a sinking heart, Mikey finally remembered where he was.

Before last night, he had been essentially lost and confused. Yes, he had known _where_ he was and how to get home but home wasn't really there and he hadn't known why or even how that was possible. Now, after the events of last night, he finally had his explanation and he wasn't sure which was worse; not knowing what was going on or knowing and realising he had no way home to his family, friends and comic book collection...

Finally he opened his eyes, feeling cold inside all over again. He didn't know how it was possible that one could feel so warm and yet so cold all at the same time. Mikey slowly sat up, clutching the blankets tightly around himself in a subconscious effort to comfort himself and looked around the room he was in, taking in every detail of this cold, cold place. Mikey felt the tears threaten to well again and he blinked them back hurriedly.

What was he going to do...

Could he really stay here?

It was obvious, even to him, that he wasn't wanted here, at least not by Raph. It was harder to tell with Leo and Donnie but they were obviously uncomfortable around him too, however they had both at least been kind. Well, Donnie had been kind. Leo... he had just been doing his duty.

Mikey didn't want to hurt them by him just being there, yet he didn't know what else he could do. For that matter, he wondered why him just being around hurt them so much and where the other Mikey was. He wasn't even sure if anything had been said about it last night, though he suspected it probably had. Most of that confrontation with the other three was little more than a blur, he'd been far too busy fighting for his life to remember what exactly had been said at the time. He stared forward miserably at the blank wall of televisions as the thoughts and feelings circled and whorled throughout his mind.

Suddenly a voice spoke aloud, interrupting his reverie and making Mikey jump in sudden surprise.

"Good morning, Michelangelo." Splinter spoke, taking in the forlorn sight of Michelangelo wrapped securely in his blanket, as he sat upright on the couch.

Mikey's heart further fell when he saw disappointment etched clearly within the strange rat's eyes. "Morning..." he muttered.

"Are you alright?" Splinter asked, gazing at him in concern.

Mikey started nodding but against his will, it quickly turned into a shake of the head. "Yeah... no... I just... I just miss my home and my family. That's all. No biggie..."

Splinter sat down beside him, resting a gentle paw on Mikey's knee. "I understand, it is a 'biggie'. It is hard to be separated from those you love, especially when you know not of their fate." When Mikey nodded, Splinter continued. "As long as you are here, in this world, Michelangelo, you are welcome to share our home. You may be strange to us and we to you but one way or another, we are all still family."

Mikey watched Splinter's eyes silently.

"Do not worry about Raphael, like the rest of us, he is hurting but he will come around eventually. Just be patient and give him some time." Splinter smiled gently at Michelangelo, giving him a comforting pat on the knee his paw rested on. "Now come, come join me for tea in the kitchen."

With that, Splinter stood and walked to the kitchen, leaning on his walking stick as he went. Mikey hesitated for a moment then bounced lightly to his feet, leaving the blanket to fall where it may and followed; if nothing else, at least glad for the company after more than a week without.

- . - . -

At Splinter's request, Mikey was happily talking about his brothers, their home and some of their adventures over the hot beverage when Leonardo walked in to join them. Mikey beamed up at him from where he sat at the table. "Morning, Leo!"

Leonardo glanced at him as if in surprise at seeing him sitting there and Mikey couldn't help but notice the slight cringe that Leo was unable to hide. "Uh... Morning Michelangelo." He then faced Splinter and bowed respectfully. "Good morning, Master Splinter."

Splinter dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Good morning, my son."

A few minutes later, Leonardo also sat with a freshly brewed tea. The silence had become quite uncomfortable again. Mikey tried to continue talking to Splinter but found he had lost his admittedly bumpy train of thought after Leo's reaction to him and he was no longer sure what to say or even if he should say anything.

Mikey watched Leo take a two handed sip from his tea and carefully place the cup down. He was trying not to openly stare but it was so hard not to; he was just so different from the Leo he knew. Mikey soon found Leo looking back up at him. Leonardo seemed as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite bring himself to do so, so Mikey smiled at him, hoping it would come across encouragingly.

Leo finally seemed to come to a decision and sat up straighter, finally meeting Mikey's eyes dead on. "Why the shell would you bring your skateboard on a mission, Michelangelo?

Mikey stared for a moment in shock at the accusation which seemed to come out of nowhere before laughing suddenly, "Dude! We weren't on a real mission, we were only hunting for mutagen and then having some fun time after. We only ran into the Kraang co-in... co-incit... co-incidontally. Anyway, I often take the board on patrol."

"I obviously don't know the details as I was not there but hunting for mutagen still sounds like a mission to me." Leonardo reprimanded sternly as he leaned forward stiffly, annoyed over the fact that Michelangelo averted his gaze. "It is very irresponsible for you to take such a thing."

"Yeah, well... My Leo doesn't mind. Besides, we've all taken our boards plenty of times before, though the others not as much as me." Mikey, upset over the perceived insult, raised his eyes, looking straight at Leonardo again.

"It doesn't sound as if..."

"_Perhaps_ this is a discussion for another time." Splinter interjected diplomatically. "After all, this is the breakfast table."

"Yes Sensei." "Hai Sensei." They said as one.

Donatello and Raphael chose that moment to walk in, or stumble in, in Donnie's case. Neither commented. Donnie essentially groped for the coffee, blinking back sleepiness as he prepared it but Raph glared fiercely at Michelangelo while making his own breakfast before pointedly ignoring the other dimensional turtle and sitting down as far away from Mikey as possible while still being seated at the same table.

"Good morning, my sons." Splinter smiled as they sat down.

Donnie muttered back something that may have been "morning" if the caffeine had kicked in yet and Raph grunted "g'morin'" before glaring down at his breakfast.

After a more few minutes of awkward quiet, Splinter turned back to Michelangelo, eager to get the conversation going once more. "I admit to being rather curious Michelangelo, but how old are you? You seem as if you are younger than my sons."

Donnie looked blearily up at Mikey, blinking as he curiously awaited the answer.

"I'll be sixteen in just over a month." he beamed.

"I see. That makes you about four years younger than my sons."

Mikey blinked, not really certain what to say to that; if he had truly been a part of this family, that really would make him the younger brother and this time by more than just a few hours or days, whatever it really was; no one was actually certain of the exact age difference.

"Explains a lot." Leonardo muttered critically.

"Leonardo, Donatello, _Raphael_," Splinter made sure he had his sons' undivided attention."Michelangelo will be staying here with us until you can find a way to return him to his home, however long it takes. He may not be the Michelangelo we knew, however he is still Michelangelo. You will _all_ welcome him as a friend." Splinter explicitly looked at Raphael at this point. "And you _will_ allow him to use Michelangelo's room."

"Master Splinter, you can't be serious!" Raph exploded, outraged at the thought of their precious brother's room being used by some poseur.

"I assure you, Raphael, that I am very serious." Splinter said resolutely, in a tone that brooked no argument.

"But all his things are in there! It's all we have left! We can't jus' let some imposter take over!"

Mikey looked down at his hands; so huge compared to the other three turtles in front of him, that held his half drunk tea. 'I won't cry! Not in front of them. I won't!'

"Michelangelo is not an 'imposter'. He is another version of your brother. I understand you are upset, Raphael but we do not have any other rooms set up for guests. There really is little choice in this matter."

"_But_..."

"Raphael! You will not continue to argue with me about this. My decision stands." Splinter commanded firmly, looking Raphael solidly in the eyes.

"Yes, Sensei." Raph muttered, clearly not happy at all as he averted his gaze.

"Raph," Donnie spoke softly as he put down the coffee he had been sipping. "What if it was one of us?"

Raph turned to stare hostilely at his purple masked brother.

"How would you feel if it was one of us stuck in a strange world, away from everything and everyone we knew and loved?" Donnie paused for a moment to also glance at Leo, making sure he was listening too, before looking back to Raph and continuing in the same calm, quiet tone. "Being trapped in a place so similar to our own and yet different enough to make everything strange and feel wrong would be worse than being stuck across the universe on an alien world; something we know all about. At least on an alien world, you _expect_ things to be different and not heartbreakingly familiar." Donatello took a deep breath and made sure Raph was still paying attention before continuing, "Don't you see? We _have_ to help him, however we can. All we have is each other and right now, we are all that Michelangelo has."

Raphael's face had softened a little as he listened to Donnie's quiet but somehow impassioned and persuasive speech. He looked to Leo and saw guilty agreement etched tightly across his oldest brother's face. Then he looked to Michelangelo, taking in the younger turtle's freckled features, his light green skin, the slightly chubby face that sang of youth which was all so different to the brother he knew and then finally, Raph looked into Michelangelo's hugely expressive, bright blue eyes that seemed as if they could never be able to hide his true emotions no matter _how_ hard he tried and it was those that hit Raph hard and deep. Within them, he could see echoes of Mikey, _their_ Mikey and it _hurt_! Like _shell_!

He couldn't...

He just couldn't take this proverbial slap to the face. He felt his long standing and carefully constructed walls crumbling with every second he looked at the other-dimensional turtle.

He couldn't, he _wouldn't,_ continue to sit at the same table as this oh-so-different-but-obviously-somehow-still-Mikey Mikey or he felt he would shatter into millions of pieces.

Raphael shoved his chair roughly away from the table and scrambled to his feet, storming out of the kitchen, out of the lair and out into the sewers.

To be continued.


	8. Chapter 7

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated T for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. I don't own any Marvel characters either. Life is cruel *pouts*. Don't own Trek either, for that matter.

Warnings: Little bit of fowl language (duck, chicken, goose) and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. Canon 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'

**And One to Grow On**

Ch – 7

Raphael felt his long standing and carefully constructed walls crumbling with every second he looked at the other-dimensional turtle.

He couldn't, he _wouldn't,_ continue to sit at the same table as this oh-so-different-but-obviously-somehow-still-Mikey Mikey or he felt he would shatter into millions of pieces.

Raph shoved his chair roughly away from the table and scrambled to his feet, storming out of the kitchen, out of the lair and out into the sewers.

"I'm sorry... if you dudes hadn't found me, it wouldn't be like this. I... if you'd prefer me to leave, I... understand." Michelangelo whispered a few minutes later. More than anything, Mikey didn't really want to be alone again, he wasn't sure he could stand it if he was, but he didn't like the way his other-dimensional bros were reacting to his presence. He felt that being here was hurting them badly and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

"You will do no such thing, Michelangelo. I already told you that you are welcome here." Splinter said firmly, his tone brooking no argument.

"Besides," Leo smiled, "I haven't seen Raph so mellow in months."

At Mikey's incredulous look, Donnie added, "It's true, Michelangelo. Since Raph first saw you the other night, he's started to talk to us again. He's even stopped pushing Casey away and now I've got two of my brothers back. "

"I will admit that it's not easy having you here, Michelangelo, but I would much rather you safe and here with us than out there on your own, especially in a world that you don't know. I'm sure both of our worlds have dangers unique to each and many the same or similar but that doesn't mean you are prepared for what's here." Leo explained. "So please don't think you need to leave."

Mikey nodded with a relieved smile, happy that he didn't have to go while also being painfully aware that no one had actually said that they _wanted_ him to stay. He couldn't blame them though, after all, he didn't even belong here. Another him did. Mikey blinked as he wondered yet again, "Where's your me anyway? What happened to him?"

Leonardo, Donatello and Master Splinter all froze, their expressions stilling, growing cold with pain and guilt. The tension; the hurt and the sadness in the air was so thick that Mikey felt sure it could have been cut with a knife. That is when he realised that he had once again accidentally spoken his thoughts out loud. Cringing with self recrimination, he gingerly looked up to each of the three seated at the kitchen table. Not one met his eyes. Mikey hesitated and tried to speak, to apologise. "I..."

"He's gone." Leo interrupted emotionless, refusing to look at him as he scraped his chair away from the table.

Mikey watched as Leo stalked out of the room, feeling bad about yet again putting his foot in it. Talk about story of his life, he groaned internally, his mouth was always getting him into trouble and it was usually unintentionally.

Donnie was staring down at his coffee, sad and silent and Mikey felt certain he could see an unhealthy dose of guilt in the genius's expression. After a while, Donnie looked up with a tight, watery smile. "Tonight, once it's dark, I think you should take us to the location that you first arrived at in this world. There is always a chance there could be a clue or an energy reading that... could help. Even though more than a week has passed since you arrived."

Mikey nodded silently, too afraid to speak in case he said the wrong thing again.

"Meditation, followed by training starts in ten minutes. Do not be late." Splinter silently stood from the table and walked out of the room. Mikey marvelled at how the rat was able to lean so much on his walking stick and yet make not a single sound before pondering on his words.

"Does... does he mean me too?" Mikey asked hopefully, desperately wanting some kind of normalcy back in his life.

Donnie chuckled almost mirthlessly and drained the dregs of his once hot drink. "Yes, that includes you too."

- . - . -

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Mikey tried to centre himself, to relax, let go and concentrate on his breathing and emptying his mind. Despite the things his brothers so often cruelly said about him, emptying his mind was _never_ that easy. It was always racing a mile a minute, often in many different directions at once.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

It never took much for his attention to wander, like he noticed it was already doing right now. Guiltily, he struggled to focus on just breathing again.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

This place was so new to him, he hadn't even seen the entire lair yet. The Leo that belonged here was harsher, more serious than his own geeky brother. His thoughts drifted, wondering about that wicked looking scar on Leo's shell. How and when did he get that? What had they been through? Who could even manage to do such a thing to Leonardo, _any_ Leonardo. Mikey wondered for a moment what the person who did that to him looked like afterwards.

So far, not that he had had that much interaction with him, Raph didn't seem so different, at least not in his wannabe 'Hulk Mad' impersonation. He thought, wondering if this Raph also had a softer side; based on what he had seen so far though, he highly doubted it. 'Probably will never know,' Mikey mused thoughtfully, 'this Raph seems to straight out hate me... I wonder just how close he and this world's me are, must have been really close to be able to hate me this much when he doesn't even know me.' In Mikey's opinion, this Raph seemed to snarl and growl more than a Dogpound in heat. 'Oops! I mean Rahzar now.' he snickered internally, not that he had ever seen Rahzar in heat; not that he wanted to even _think_ about it. Mikey shuddered, he seriously wanted to wash his brain out with bleach now. Maybe he should ask Donnie later if he had something to help him with that.

That accent though, it was so weird, how was it possible that he sounded so different when none of the others did.

Donnie was the most different of these guys from his bros. This Donnie seemed so quiet and soft spoken, nothing at all like his Donnie. Mikey smirked briefly, thinking of his Donnie's nerd rages before sobering.

He missed him so much.

Donnie had always put up with far more from Mikey than his other bros did. They were practically best buds. Donnie still got testy with him sure, just like everyone else did but they hung out together and teamed up far more. Not so much recently though, as they used to. At home, Donnie had taken on more and more of a work load, as he studied the mutagen and tried to come up with a way to reverse its effects. He didn't have as much time for Mikey as he used to have and Mikey had definitely noticed and felt it. Even out on patrol, lately Mikey had been teamed with Raph more often instead.

He wondered if his bros knew what happened to him, if they were even trying to find him.

If they even wanted to find him...

For a moment he remembered back to last year when they were trying to rescue April's dad and each of his brothers said straight out that they didn't want him, that had hurt so much and no one even noticed. 'Maybe that's why Leo doesn't pair me and Donnie so much any more... trying not to burden one brother with me so often...'

Mikey shook his head emphatically, shaking away the sudden ache at the horrible memory which he always tried so hard to forget. Of course they were trying to find him, they were his family! They loved him! Even if they never actually said it, Mikey could tell. He could always tell what they were really feeling, at least he could when he wasn't distracted by whatever else.

"Eh hem!" Someone cleared their throat warningly.

Mikey straightened where he sat cross-legged guiltily. Meditating now, that's right!

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

It took him a moment to place that voice. Splinter. No one's voice was right or familiar here. That may have been for the best though, really. If they sounded and looked the same, it might have hurt even more than it already did, not that he wanted them to see he was hurting too.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

This strange Splinter's accent was even missing.

He wondered if Leo, Donnie and Raph here were triplets, maybe quads if this dimension's version of him was included. Was that even possible? They hatched from eggs but could four of them fit in a single egg? He didn't really think so but they all looked so much the same! The only real difference seemed to be their skin tones and maybe the patterns on their shells, though he hadn't had much chance to look.

Mikey suddenly felt a deep sense of disappointment directed his way.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Was that Splinter or Leo? Both maybe...

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Master Splinter. Mikey tried to feel him out. It was him that really felt the weirdest here. He had noticed when he first laid eyes on him last night. It wasn't even his lack of height or the odd colouring of his fur. Mikey just couldn't put his finger on the source of the feeling. When he met Leo, Donnie and Raph, they had still _felt_ like Leo, Donnie and Raph only a bit more... extreme? in their personalities. _Why_ was it that his father and sensei didn't feel _anything_ like the father and sensei he grew up with. He seriously didn't understand why that was. Mikey felt like he was just being stupid again. He felt like...

"That is enough my sons, Michelangelo." Splinter's voice broke through, interrupting Mikey's reverie.

Mikey blinked his eyes open and looked up.

"Yes, Sensei."

"Hai, Sensei."

- . - . -

The first thing Donatello noticed during practice was that due to his lesser experience, Michelangelo had a little trouble keeping up with him and Leonardo. There were a few things that Michelangelo just didn't know yet, things he had obviously not been taught. It made sense though, given that the other dimensional turtle was nearly four years younger than them and the events that had happened in this dimension to forge them either had not happened in his yet or were unlikely to happen, depending of course on just how different their two realities were.

Master Splinter took this lack of knowledge in his stride and while Donnie and Leo sparred, Splinter took Michelangelo aside to give him personal lessons on the things he had yet to learn.

Raph never turned up for their training that morning and Donnie could tell Leo was resentful. Probably due to what Leo would have perceived as a lack of respect to their Sensei. Donnie himself though, wasn't surprised at all by their younger brother's absence. In his opinion, their younger brother was just too emotional for his own good, not that he would ever actually _tell_ him that. Telling him would just be asking for trouble, not to mention unnecessary pain.

Finally, about four hours after it began, training was over and Splinter left to go watch one of his 'stories', leaving the three turtles to clean up in the dojo. With all three of them working together, it at least didn't take them too long. The uncomfortable silence was broken when Leo eventually spoke up.

"When did you and your brothers start going topside on your own?"

"The first time we ever went up at all was on our fifteenth mutation day." Mikey blinked, surprised at the weird question.

"The first time? _Ever_?" Leo asked in astonishment.

Mikey nodded, "Well, I know Raph snuck up once before when we were younger. Master Splinter found out so fast though and handed Raph's shell to him so hard that none of us dared to sneak up since. That I know of anyway. Raph's a slow learner so it wouldn't surprise me if he tried again." Mikey snickered.

"Wow..." Donnie paused in his cleaning to stare at Michelangelo in disbelief. "That's about when we started going up on our own but we had been up on numerous occasions with Master Splinter before that. We'd often go scavenging with him, both at the various junk yards and the alleyways behind restaurants and super markets. You guys really _never_ helped go looking for food and other essentials?"

"That must have been so hard on your Splinter, finding enough food for five mouths on his own, especially as you got older." Leo shook his head in wonder.

"Not really. We um... farmed our own food ever since I can remember." Mikey explained. "Didn't you?"

"Not much really grows down here so that was never really an option. Even if it was, we were much too young to know how and Master Splinter wouldn't have known either." Leo answered as he started gathering the cleaning supplies to return them to their storage place as they finished cleaning.

"What kinds of food did your family grow?" Donnie asked curiously before venturing thoughtfully, "I'm guessing certain kinds of edible fungus but surely that couldn't be all." He took some of the gear from Leo and the three turtles headed out of the dojo to the closet that Donnie had built for their cleaning equipment with Leo's help when they moved here.

"Fungus?" Mikey asked peculiarly, "Never heard of that before but it sounds kinda fun." He grinned suddenly at his own joke.

"Don means mushrooms." Leo explained with a shake of his head at the poor quip.

"Oh! You mean that stuff you put on pizzas!" Mikey continued to grin, ignoring Leo's reaction. "Nuh dude, we grew worms and algae."

Donatello and Leonardo stopped suddenly and Mikey accidentally crashed into the two. They turned and stared at the orange masked turtle in abject horror.

"What?" Mikey asked, taken aback by the way they looked at him.

"You... ate nothing but algae..."

"and worms..."

"For fifteen years?"

"Uh, yeah, of course." Mikey replied as if the other two were stupid. "What else would we have eaten?"

"Actual real food." Leo said faintly.

"Actually Leo, for normal turtles, that would be a considerable part of a normal diet, depending of course on the species of turtle. Other normal dietary requirements would include..."

"No offence Don, but I'm already green enough without you making my stomach turn even more." Leonardo interjected hurriedly.

"Heh!" Mikey laughed, "Yeah, ever since we found the mythical pizza that first night topside, my bros can't even look at worms and algae without being sick any more."

"And you can?" Leo asked cautiously, dreading the answer.

"Sure dude, food's food but I don't really like to eat anything other than pizza or similar if I can help it now."

"But... why worms and algae? Really?"

"It's what the pet store dude told Master Splinter to feed us when he bought us of course." Mikey nodded matter of factly. "Speaking of food, I'm starving! Do... you mind if I get some lunch, dude?" he asked as his stomach grumbled loudly.

Leonardo shook his head, digesting the conversation. There was something about what Michelangelo just said that bothered him slightly, and it wasn't the so called food but he was too distracted by Michelangelo's question to put his finger on it. "You don't need to ask, Michelangelo. I told you last night to just help yourself and Master Splinter said this morning to consider this your home until you can get back to your own."

Mikey smiled relieved, "Cool, thanks dude." He turned and began to head to the kitchen when Donatello called out to him after suddenly remembering something.

"Wait, Michelangelo!" When Mikey turned back to him, questioning expression filling his face, Donnie continued. "You said last night that your phone, what did you call it again?"

"My T-phone?"

"Yes, you said it stopped working after you arrived here."

Michelangelo nodded cautiously, "Yeah... I guess I broke it somehow but I really dunno what I did..."

Donnie chuckled, "I doubt you broke it. It is most likely on a specialised network of its own so crossing to this dimension means it simply no longer has access to a network. That would explain why you could not get a signal anymore when you tried to phone home. If you give it to me, I'll patch it into our network so you can use it again."

For a moment, Mikey began to look excited at the thought but then he sobered, looking miserable as he dug the themed phone out of its pouch in his belt. "Only one problem dude, it's really dead now... Has been for three days." He handed over the T-phone regardless. Mikey had been feeling even more separated from home ever since it died, no longer allowing him to at least look at the photos of his beloved family within.

Donnie gently took the proffered communications device from Michelangelo's outstretched hand and nodded absently as he turned it over and over in his hands out of curiosity. "I am sure it only needs charging up again. I'll sort out a way to do that also." He looked up suddenly aware that Michelangelo seemed upset. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." Donnie tried to smile comfortingly.

"Thanks Donnie dude." Mikey said, smiling in return. Donnie noticed though that the smile didn't quite reach Michelangelo's eyes. He watched as their younger visitor continued walking slowly to the kitchen.

Donnie and Leo exchanged a quick glance and then, without a word, they went their separate ways; Leo to the bedrooms and Donnie to his lab.

- . - . -

It didn't take Donatello much time to cobble together an adapter to charge up the intriguing T-phone, at least until he could make the time to make a more permanent charger. Once the telecommunications device had gained enough power to turn on again, Donnie poured over it, taking in everything; the apps, the games, the programming, the camera. He mentally compared it to his Shell-cells and found he was disappointed. It was true, it had been a long time since he even considered upgrades for his own design and compared to the T-phone, it felt... lacking. Donnie knew that the Shell-cells were far more difficult to use than the gorgeous piece of technology he was currently inspecting but he had deliberately designed them so. He had wanted it to be difficult for just anyone to use. If anyone else found one, or took one, they would hopefully dismiss it almost instantly as 'junk', particularly if they were not able to use it.

After hacking into the T-phone's programming, Donnie found it rather easy to tie it into his own Shell-cell network. Programming wise, the two weren't really that much different, something he was pleased about since he didn't want to make the T-phone unable to reconnect to its usual network when the opportunity invariably arose.

Donnie then set about adding useful phone numbers to Michelangelo's T-phone, his, Leo's, Raph's, April's and Casey's. After each name, he added an (S) for Shell-cell to distinguish the names from the other dimensional counterparts, despite acknowledging that there were pictures attached to each name, in some cases, April and Casey's, a photo. Noticing that made Donnie immensely curious and he just couldn't help but indulge in that curiosity. He very quickly found himself browsing through the various photos saved into the album. One picture in particular, he felt drawn to and he sat there for several minutes, studying it with great interest.

It was a group photo. Michelangelo and his brothers with whom he assumed must be Splinter and April. Staring at the photo, Donatello realised just _how_ different they all were. It wasn't just Michelangelo. All the brothers were truly unique from each other. Donnie gawked in wonder at the _tall_, lanky form of his own counterpart, thoroughly intrigued; and was that a gap in his teeth? His doppelganger, though tall, still looked short when compared to the younger but still wise looking Splinter who had multiple colours throughout his fur. No wonder Michelangelo had appeared so shocked upon witnessing their much shorter, older and greyer Sensei.

And April, she looked so young! She couldn't have been much older than Michelangelo. She was posed with one arm around the embarrassed but ecstatic looking other Donatello and holding a tessen in her other hand, splayed out in front of her chest, proudly showing off the crest within its centre.

Raphael wore a devil-may-care smirk that filled his features, one fist buried in the palm of his other hand mock threateningly as he gazed towards a mischievously grinning Michelangelo, who could be seen holding a water balloon half hidden in his hand and looking sideways towards Leonardo. Leonardo was standing slightly off from the rest of the group in a cheesy looking pose which could almost have come from a certain ship's captain in 'Star Trek', if Donatello didn't know better.

All six within the photograph looked happy and Donnie wondered who it was that actually took the picture. He sent a copy of the photo to his e-mail address, telling himself it was a test to make certain the T-phone truly worked with their network and made a mental note to print out a copy of it to give to Michelangelo so he could have a hard copy handy to look at at any time.

Donnie noticed the T-phone had finally finished charging; it certainly had a beautifully fast charge rate. He unplugged it and stood up, fully intending to go hand it back it their visitor when he once more glanced down at the photo full of happy, smiling faces and suddenly felt an intense, overwhelming sadness crash down into him.

Donatello fell back into his wheeled office chair, unconsciously dropping the T-phone as tears sprang unwelcome into his vision and his heart ached terribly.

He remembered when his family had been happy and whole like the family in that picture, when Mikey was still with them.

Before that horrible night seven months ago when it felt as though they lost everything.

The worst night of their lives and it had all been _his_ fault...

- . - . -

To be continued.


	9. Chapter 8

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated T for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Overall story - little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. Canon 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'

AN: Thanks all of you who have commented in the last couple of weeks or so, it means a lot to me and has seriously made me feel better about this story than I had been feeling :-)

**And One to Grow On**

Ch – 8

He remembered when his family had been happy and whole like the family in that picture, when Mikey was still with them.

Before that horrible night when it felt like they had lost everything.

The worst night of their lives and it had all been _his_ fault...

"_Donnie!" The voice barely breaks through his concentration but his eyes glance towards the source of the voice. Mikey is rushing at him, practically on top of him and he doesn't immediately fathom why, his mind is still elsewhere, focused intently on his task. "_**Move**_!" _

_He finds himself suddenly tumbling, disoriented as his younger brother barrels into him, shoving him forcefully away from where he stood at the computer bank._

_The immediate drawn out, blood-curdling screams fill his every sense, drowning everything else out. It is an unnerving sound filled with pure agony and with a dreadful chill, he realises it is Michelangelo's voice he is hearing. He looks up, seeing his brother where he stood only moments before and he's caught in the throes of some kind of directed energy beam, different to the ones previously flying about._

Distraught and breathing heavily, Donatello forced his eyes open and pushed away the overwhelming, terrible memory with considerable effort. Minutes later, he stumbled to his feet and grabbed the T-phone from where he had dropped it what felt like hours earlier; intending to go return the device to its owner. He couldn't look at it any longer. He didn't want to see the sight of those happy faces anymore. It reminded him far too much of what he and his family had lost.

Donatello stopped before the door leading out of his lab to gather his composure and leaned heavily against it; it wouldn't do to let anyone see him this way. After a few more minutes, he was finally able to slip his calm mask back onto his face and body, hoping no one would notice any slight shakiness that he may or may not still be exhibiting and opened the door to leave.

He glanced towards the wall of televisions as he made his way through their home, noticing Master Splinter's soap coming to its melodramatic conclusion for the day and realised Michelangelo wasn't there so he headed straight for the kitchen, hoping the orange banded turtle would still be in there so he wouldn't have to go looking for him.

When Donatello entered the food prep area, he saw the other-dimensional turtle standing in front of the oven, tapping his three-toed foot impatiently while waiting for the delicious smelling food inside to finish cooking. Donnie took a deep, appreciative breath, inhaling the aroma of a home made meal, rather than the usual freezer or slap-dash efforts from the last several months. "Mmm, that smells good, Michelangelo."

Michelangelo turned with a smile, "You guys didn't have any pizza left but I found enough ingredients to make some, though you only had boring stuff for the topping," he shrugged lightly, smile still firmly in place, "so we'll just have to settle for pepperoni, mushrooms, olives and pineapple." Michelangelo turned back to face the oven again, "Ten minutes to go. Man! This is taking all year and I'm starved!"

Despite himself and the melancholy still afflicting him, Donatello couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the younger turtle, "Well, in the meantime, I have your T-phone charged up and already working on my network. Until I have time to get parts to make a specific charging unit for your phone, you will just have to bring it to me whenever you need it charged." Donnie smiled as Michelangelo's eyes practically lit up in excitement.

"Awesome! Thanks dude!" Michelangelo hurriedly grabbed the proffered T-phone, unlocking it and scrolling quickly though the contacts list. He frowned momentarily as he noticed double the usual listings but shrugged, looking instead for the Captain Ryan avatar that symbolised Leo and dialled, holding the phone to his ear slit. He frowned again at the lack of ringing. "Um... Donnie?" He asked moments later, "Not to doubt you or anything, dude, but I thought you said you got it working?"

"I did." Donnie raised his eyebrow ridges, suddenly dreading the answer to the question he knew he just had to ask. "Who are you trying to call?"

"Leo of course."

"... Your Leo or mine?"

Michelangelo gave Donnie a weird look, "Why would I try to phone your Leo? I can just open my mouth and yell for him."

Donnie sighed, somehow managing not to face-palm. 'That's what I was afraid of...' he thought morosely. "You can't ring your brothers, Michelangelo. You are in a different dimension to them, remember?"

"Yeah, I know that dude, but you said my T-phone works now so why can't I at least call them with it?"

"It... doesn't work like that. You would need an open portal or crack between the dimensions for that." Donnie explained as patiently as he could. "And if we had that, we could get you home already."

"Oh... then... what was the point of fixing my T-phone?" Michelangelo asked in sad confusion, though he flipped deftly through the menus within the device, eyes searching keenly as he spoke. His face relaxed as he found whatever he was looking for and he gently touched the screen with a single, thick finger.

Donnie closed his eyes briefly, drawing deep on the wells of his inner strength. "Well, now that your T-phone is on the network, you can call people here if you need to."

Michelangelo glanced up from the screen at Donnie.

"I've taken the liberty to add our phone numbers to your contacts in case you need to call any of us. I marked them with a bracketed S after the names so you can easily tell the difference. S stands for Shell-cell." Donnie explained.

Michelangelo's eyes widened and a true smile split his face. He quickly stepped forward, throwing his arms around Donnie in a sudden, affectionate embrace. "Thanks Donnie! You're awesome!"

Donatello stood stiffly. He hadn't expected this reaction and he really wasn't sure if he liked it or not. It was a long time since the last hug he had received and the last hug had been from...

Without realising what he was doing, Donnie pushed Michelangelo away, hurriedly stepping back out of immediate reach of the younger turtle, then he stopped, registering the hurt that flowed onto Michelangelo's face. Donnie brought his hand up to his own face, roughly scrubbing at it. "I'm... sorry, Michelangelo... I..." Then Donnie turned, unable to keep talking and rushed off, out of the kitchen and stumbled back to his lab.

He really needed to be alone right now.

- . - . -

Mikey stood watching Donatello as the purple attired turtle rushed away from him as if he were an infectious disease or something. He couldn't understand why Donnie had pushed him away like that and it really hurt. Mikey had thought things were starting to get better. Yeah, sure, he was still a stranger here but Donnie had been the most welcoming, going out of his way to help him and so he hugged him. It was instinct! What was so wrong about that? Mikey knew that back home he was the most affectionate in his family and his bros weren't really the touchy feely types but they never seemed to mind that much when he hugged them, other than a brief protest on principle, of course. Not even Raph, as long as no one else was around to see and Mikey didn't hug for too long at a time.

As Mikey stood miserably staring at the door Donatello had left through, Leo entered, having just come down from upstairs. He was surprised to see Michelangelo like this with the oven alarm insistently beeping away behind him, unnoticed.

Leo stepped close, reaching up a hand as if to touch Michelangelo's shoulder before dropping it again, unwilling to actually reach out if he could avoid it. "Are you alright, Michelangelo?"

"Huh? Uh... yeah, I'm fine, dude." Mikey suddenly blinked as he registered Leo's presence and question.

"Really? Only you seem to be staring at nothing and the oven timer is going off." Leo felt sure he would have been amused by the situation had the visiting turtle not seemed so visibly upset.

"It is? Oh, it is!" Mikey whirled around, moving quickly to turn off the alarm and oven before the pizzas burned.

"What's wrong, Michelangelo?" Leo asked firmly in his leader voice.

Mikey sighed as he carefully removed the pizzas, "It's Donnie. I just can't seem to do or say anything right and I upset your bro. Again. I'm sorry..."

"Tell me."

Leo watched as Michelangelo placed the two pizzas on a cutting board that was waiting ready on the nearby bench before sitting down at the table, no longer hungry. He listened intently, nodding as Michelangelo told him what happened.

At the end, Leo sighed, steeling himself, "Don... he took our brother's... disappearance hard. We all did, really but Don took it the hardest." He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes in pain, "One way or another, we all blame ourselves but Donnie was the one who was with him when what happened... happened. It's true... that in all these months since, we haven't talked to each other much or even been there for each other..." At this, Leonardo looked ashamed. "Things finally started getting better in the last few days though, ever since Raph saw you and Master Splinter put his foot down about our self-destructive behaviour; the way we were treating each other and ourselves... but you, you being here _is_ hard, I cannot deny that. It's like the wounds are fresh all over again." Leonardo opened his eyes again, looking Michelangelo directly in the eyes.

"And before you say anything, _no_, we don't want you to leave but you _need_ to give us..." Leo paused briefly, as if struggling to find the right word, "... space."

Mikey nodded silently, fiddling with his fingers and looking down at the table he was sitting at; anywhere but Leo's eyes.

"We are just starting to to get used to each other again and now we are asked to get used to another on top of that, who both is and _isn't_ our brother." Leo breathed deeply. "Look, um... Michelangelo, I'm sorry but I really don't want to keep talking about all this right now. It's just too much."

"It's cool, Leo. I kinda get it." Mikey looked back up at Leonardo, his eyes clear, sympathetic and understanding all at once yet completely without pity.

Leo gave the tiniest of smiles and took another deep, calming breath. "Why don't we eat lunch now, I would hate for your hard work cooking to go to waste. I'll take Don's to him as I'm sure he won't be ready to come out yet."

Leonardo had been correct, Donnie wouldn't come out of his lab, nor did he unlock the door so Leo just left the food covered up beside the door. After lunch was over and Splinter had left for his meditation mat, Mikey turned back to Leo.

"So what do I do now, Leo?" He looked around helplessly at the lair that was not his home. "I can't even leave the lair to go skating, you said it's alarmed and I'm really good at setting those off." Mikey said with a self deprecating wince.

Leo chuckled briefly, for just a moment reminded of better times, "How about we finish that tour we started last night?"

"Sounds good, dude." Mikey smiled.

"Later on, we'll show you how to use the alarm system to get in and out but it will have to wait until Don makes time to set the system to recognise you."

- . - . -

Leonardo finished showing Mikey around the huge once pumping station-now lair, ending in front of a door to a room. Mikey noticed Leo seemed extremely uncomfortable again but after a slight hesitation and steeling of himself, Leo spoke up, "This was Mikey's room... where you can stay while you are here. I just finished freshening it for you before lunch."

Somehow this seemed really wrong to Mikey and he could see Leo also felt that way; worse, he couldn't help but remember back to the previous night.

"_He ain't takin' Mikey's room!" Raph snarled, aggressively motioning in Michelangelo's direction. "He can sleep on the couch or on the floor for all I care or just shove him in the infirmary but he ain't havin' our brother's room!"_

"_Probably best not to argue with Raph tonight." Donnie sighed._

Mikey bit his lip a moment before asking, "Are you sure it's okay?"

"Yes, it's fine. Under the circumstances, I know Mikey would have wanted you to use it, besides, Master Splinter said you were to sleep here. Just ignore Raph if he makes a scene about it. You can always come to me if he gets too obnoxious about things." Leo seemed to mentally fortify himself once more before reaching out a hand to twist the door handle, opening the door. "You can use or read anything in here, Michelangelo, just... be careful with our brother's things. Okay?"

Mikey's eyes widened as he took in the sight of piles of comics, games, action figures and a skateboard. His gaze wandered the walls, taking in the view of dozens of myriad posters, mostly of old horror movies with a couple of band and superhero posters thrown in for good measure. All had seen betters days but three of the four walls were covered lovingly, leaving nary an inch to spare. The fourth wall however, was different. It had what looked like a half finished mural painted onto it. The whole scene was drawn out painstakingly in pencil, with bits and pieces filled in with various bright colours. "Sure, I'll do my best to be careful," he promised, hoping like hell he could live up to his word. After all, Mikey knew he didn't have the best track record when it came to other people's things.

"Michelangelo?"

"Yeah, Leo?"

"You might be stuck here for a while..." Leo started. Mikey's gaze fell to the floor at the thought but Leo continued, "... but we _will_ get you home eventually. Trust me on this, trust _Don_ on this."

"I know dude, if anyone can help me get home, Donnie can." Of that, Mikey had absolutely no doubts. If this Donnie was even half as determined as his Donnie, he knew he would come through for him sooner or later.

Leo smiled at the sheer conviction of faith shining through Michelangelo's very being. "In the meantime, treat our home as if it were yours. If you need anything and are unsure, just ask." Leo turned to leave, "I'm going to go meditate in my room now."

"Which room was yours again?" Mikey asked, screwing his face up as he tried to remember from the night before.

Motioning for Michelangelo to step outside the room, Leo pointed to a door two rooms down before walking there and going inside.

Mikey watched until Leo closed his door behind himself. For a moment, he felt the loneliness and homesickness creep into his soul once more but forced himself to turn and gaze into the room he was to use which belonged to his lost counterpart. Catching sight of the piles of comics again, he felt his curiosity and excitement build until he was able to forget his troubles for the moment. He ran lightly over to the nearest pile and started flicking through it, eyes growing large like saucers as he took in the sight of unfamiliar titles like 'Silver Sentry', 'Justice Force' and 'Nobody'; they were all very different from the horror and sci-fi comics he owned back home. Picking up an issue whose cover particularly caught his eye, 'Silver Sentry Meets the Turtle Titan', Mikey flopped down onto the freshly made bed and started reading eagerly.

- . - . -

After Raphael stormed out at breakfast that morning, he had kicked around the sewers for a couple of hours, trying to calm down and get his emotions under some semblance of control again. Having to eat breakfast with that fake Mikey at the same table had been hard enough but hearing Splinter encouraging him to take their little brother's place had made Raph furious.

Mikey _wasn't_ replaceable and it felt to him that that was what Splinter was trying to do, to replace the hero that was their lost, little brother.

He wanted to lash out in blind rage so badly; taking everything he had to prevent himself from doing just that, that it physically hurt and then to make it all worse, Donnie... Don of _all_ turtles, actually supported their Sensei. He had tried to guilt Raph, to make him feel sympathy for the 'poor, little, lost pretender' turtle, then to exacerbate matters even more, as if that had even been possible, Donnie had almost succeeded. If Raph had stayed in close proximity to... 'Michelangelo' for much longer, he knew he couldn't have remained in control.

So he left.

After he calmed down sufficiently, Raphael headed to hang out at Casey's, not wanting to face home any time soon. Unfortunately for him, his friend was out at work so instead, Raph hung around in the decrepit apartment by himself, watching television and waiting for Case to return home.

Casey had been surprised to see Raph, especially since it had to have been broad daylight when the red masked turtle entered his apartment but he didn't mind, he never did. Instead, Casey sat down passing Raph a beer and listening to Raphael rant and rave as he complained about all that had happened since the previous night.

To say the least, Casey was curious. Once evening came, he convinced Raph to return home, Casey in tow, for 'moral support' of course. Raph hadn't been fooled but he welcomed his friend's presence regardless.

The lair was silent when Raph and Casey returned; the lights all ablaze and no one in sight. Raph walked over to Donnie's lab, noting the covered plate on the ground beside the door and tried to walk in, only to find the door locked. He hammered loudly on it, calling out to his brother to unlock the damn thing. Moments later, the door opened to a tired, washed out looking Donatello who looked expectantly at him. "What Raph?"

Raph eyed Donatello critically, "You look like crap."

With a dry, humourless chuckle, Donnie replied, "Just what I needed to know. Now, what do you want?

"Hi Don." Casey waved from behind Raph.

Donnie glanced toward Casey muttering a reply before turning back to his brother and raising his eyebrow ridges, waiting.

"Where's the little imposter?"

Donatello sighed, "He is _not_ an imposter, Raph. He's Mik... Michelangelo. Just not the one we knew." He turned around, heading back into the dark depths of his laboratory. "He's probably in Mikey's room. Leo cleaned it up for him to use after training finished; which you would know if you hadn't bailed on us."

Raphael growled angrily at the news.

"Raph, there is no where else for him. It's not like we have spare rooms or beds set up for guests to use."

"How can you even be so sure he's who he's claimin' to be? Have you done any of your 'science' tests yet?" Raph challenged.

"I don't need to, not for that reason anyway. It doesn't matter what he looks like, Raph, just listening to him, he feels like Michelangelo just... different. I can't explain it, Raph," Donnie said heavily, "it's not my domain, but Leo or Master Splinter possibly could. Even Sensei knew who he was with only a few minutes interaction."

"Let me ask you somethin', Don, if you're so sure of who he is and so set on helpin' him, why the _shell_ were you locked away in here?" Raph gestured angrily around the work space, "with what is obviously lunch, untouched, on the ground outside?"

Donatello stiffened, glancing at the ground by the door. He didn't see anything though as the tray was to the side of it. "I would rather not talk about it." Raph gave him a triumphant look so Donnie added mordantly, "especially not to you."

Raph's face darkened again, "So the damn imposter is gettin' to you too, huh?"

"He's not..." Donnie began exasperated, "Oh, what's the point? You are obviously not in a mood to listen to anything anyone else has to say anyway so I see no reason to continue to try. Just... just give me your Shell-cell for a minute."

"That's so typical of you, givin' up so easily." Raph sneered as he fished his phone from his belt and held it out.

Donnie gave him a dirty look as he took the proffered device and quickly programmed Michelangelo's number into the contacts list. "Some of us at least know _when_ to fight and _when_ to quit."

When he was done, Raph practically snatched the phone back to see what Donnie had done. He felt his ire quickly rise once more.

"Leave that number in there, you never know when you might need it, Raph."

Raphael scowled contemptuously at the number, contemplating ignoring Donnie but thought better of it. Don didn't get mad easily but when he did, he was not to be trifled with. Besides, if need be, he could always use the number to keep tabs on the owner's whereabouts. However, Raph thought quickly and renamed the entry to 'Imposter'.

Donatello carefully watched Raph and rolled his eyes at the small but not unexpected rebellion. "Casey, I hope you don't mind but I also took the liberty of giving yours and April's numbers to Michelangelo just in case he needs to get a hold of you for any reason," he said, turning his head towards their friend.

"Yeah, that's fine, Don." Casey handed his phone to Donnie, waiting as the turtle added the number.

"Are you staying a while, Casey?"

"Yeah, I'm curious and wanna meet 'im." Casey nodded, taking his phone back from Donnie.

Donatello smiled tiredly, "Then I'll call April over too and see if she'll bring take out." He turned back to Raph, "Once I'm done, I'll go get Michelangelo. I think we would all rather it wasn't you getting him."

"Whatever!" Raph said acidly. "Come on, Case, pretty sure there's a game or somethin' on we can watch while waitin' for Don to get the imposter."

Casey turned a sympathetic look to Donnie, who was already calling April, before following Raph to the entertainment room.

After arranging things with his friend and giving her a brief explanation, Donnie headed to Mikey's room, stopping by Leo's to let him know what was going on and conveniently ignoring his comment of being glad to see Donnie 'out with the living' once more.

Donatello knocked on Mikey's door and waited for a response but none came. After knocking a second time with no reply, he opened the door, not entirely surprised to see Michelangelo as flat on his back as his shell would allow, head and one arm flopped off the side of the bed, one leg dangling off the other side and several comics scattered all around the bed, one of which was open on top of his plastron.

Donnie stared in silence, for a horrible moment seeing Mikey superimposed over the top of the sleeping Michelangelo. He swallowed back the lump in his throat and blinked rapidly, trying to stop the tears that threatened. He was tempted to instead get Leo to wake him but Donnie couldn't do that to his older brother. After all, what had happened that night wasn't _Leo's_ fault.

Marching determinately over to Michelangelo, Donnie took note of the comics; all 'Silver Sentry'. He picked them all off the bed, lingering on the issue that featured his brother. Gently, he touched the cover; of course he had known all about 'The Turtle Titan'. Mikey never could keep a secret about himself from his brothers, especially when he was so excited about it, however, Donnie had never known there was a comic too. Briefly, he wondered if Leo had known but he doubted it. There would have been 'words' if he had known.

Donnie carefully put the brightly coloured books down on the bedside table before turning back to the gently snoring turtle splayed out on the bed. If he was anything like his brother, then he would probably need to be shaken awake, Donnie realised. 'Better just get this over with,' he thought despondently.

He reached out, grabbing hold of Michelangelo's shoulder and shaking it said, "It's time to wake up, Michelangelo."

Michelangelo started, flailing about and rising to a sudden seated position with a vague yelp. Blinking, he turned to look up at Donnie. "What?" he asked in sleepy confusion.

"You fell asleep reading." Donnie responded, slightly amused despite himself. He watched as Michelangelo looked wildly around the bed. "The comics are there, if that is what you are looking for." Donnie pointed them out, noting the relief presenting itself over the other turtle's face.

"When you are ready, come downstairs. Casey is here and wants to meet you and April is on her way over with dinner." With that, Donnie turned and left, barely hearing Michelangelo's positive response as he exited.

With the door firmly closed behind him, Donnie leaned against the nearest wall, eyes closed and breathing deeply and evenly in an effort to centre himself once more. He hadn't realised when he encouraged his brothers to accept Michelangelo's presence just how hard this would be. It was the perfect punishment for what he had done, he thought bitterly; prior to pushing himself away from the wall and walking downstairs before Michelangelo could leave the room and catch him there.

Donatello was completely unaware of a concerned Leonardo watching him quietly from his slightly cracked open door.

To be continued


	10. Chapter 9

Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: Overall story rated T for language, Raph will be Raph after all.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of foul language and mentions of past character death. Unbetaed.

Summary: "You're already hurtin' 'em, There's already been enough loss as it is." The stranger glared in obvious trepidation. Reeling from loss, hope will be found in an unexpected form. No OC's. Set: Canon 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. Canon 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'

AN: Just a reminder, due to a comment someone made from the previous chapter, despite the number of chapters, less than a day has passed since the guys found 2k12 Mikey and brought him home. Also, my laptop is coming to the end of its 3 year warranty and has... issues with a couple of the keys making me need to press them extra hard and several times at times. I am sending it off to get fixed before the warranty is up and it could be gone a few weeks so not sure when the next chapter will be out. Sorry in advance. You can thank my laziness, tiredness and procrastination for the lateness of this particular chapter. Thank you for all the comments and favourites, it really helps to inspire and makes my day :-)

**And One to Grow On**

Ch – 9

When Michelangelo came downstairs a few minutes later, Leo, Donnie, Raph and Casey were seated around the wall of televisions. The latter two loudly egging on their team from the game that was playing; Leo and Donnie couldn't have looked less interested if they tried. In fact, neither one even looked like they really wanted to be there at all. Leo was the first to notice Mikey's presence, though for the life of him, Mikey had no idea how Leo could possibly have heard him over the raucous noise of the match and the two yelling fans.

"Did you sleep well?" Leo inquired, trying to sound interested as Mikey drew closer.

Mikey nodded, "Dunno why I fell asleep though, was just so tired all of a sudden."

"You've had a hard week. It probably just all caught up to you at once now that you are safe." Leo replied with Donnie nodding in agreement beside him.

"Probably..." Mikey's gaze drifted off to the left of Leo and Donnie. By now, Raph and Casey also noticed him and had turned to face him. Raph's eyes were narrowed in distrust and a touch of hatred and Casey's had widened in surprise. Mikey canted his head slightly as he stared back at the human. Like his 'brothers', Casey was not what he expected. At all. For a start, he was so tall, his hair was completely wild and "How'd you get so old, Case-man?" Mikey couldn't help but blurt out. "You look old enough to be your own dad!"

"Wh... what?" Casey spluttered. "I'm not old! I'm..."

"Hey!" Mikey grinned in sudden realisation as he inadvertently interrupted Casey. He ran over and somersaulted to land smack dab in front of the man. "You've even still got all your teeth! Amazing!" His eyes widened in sudden thought and without thinking about what he was doing, Mikey reached out a finger, prodding Casey in the mouth, "Or are they falsies?"

"_What?_" Casey cried out in indignant shock. "Stop that!" He slapped Mikey's hand away from his face. "Seriously, dude, who _does _that?" He took a quick step backwards from the exuberant turtle and a sound like a snort of amusement caught his ear. Casey turned to glare at the nearby smirking Raph. "Glad you think it's so amusin', shell-fer-brains."

Upon realising Michelangelo had also turned attention his way, Raph hurriedly covered up his amusement with his customary scowl. "Yer own fault for tryin' to be friendly to a damn imposter. Can't say I didn't warn you, bonehead!"

"Aww, it's not that bad, just looks like he's got a warped sense a humour too, that's all." Casey retorted, noticing Raph and Mikey's 'interaction'. He turned back to Mikey, "Seriously though, boundaries, okay?"

Mikey nodded miserably, backing away. Without meaning to, he done it again, he realised. He didn't notice the vague and mostly hidden looks of amusement on Leo and Donnie's faces. He bumped into the railing of the stairs leading up to the next level and stopped abruptly.

"Hey guys!" An unfamiliar, feminine voice called out cheerfully.

Mikey turned his head, seeing a five foot seven, red-headed woman in trousers and a short tight top with her midriff exposed closing the door behind her and juggling several full plastic bags. Casey was by her side in seconds, taking the load from her hands and smiling goofily. "Hi babe."

She shook her head amused, and walked past him. She looked around until her gaze caught sight and settled on Mikey before walking directly over and smiling warmly in greeting.

"Hello, you must be Michelangelo. Don told me on the phone how you were stuck here. I'm April." She laughed slightly nervously, "Sorry, I guess you probably knew that already but honestly, if I hadn't been told about you already, I would never have recognised you."

Mikey smiled back, feeling better again thanks to her friendliness. "It's cool, D said you were coming over, April but I didn't recognise you either." He shook his head, unable to prevent a confused look crossing his face. "No one here looks the same. You're all so weird looking." Mikey paused a moment before adding, "and old!"

April looked aghast and asked faintly, "How... how old do you think I am?"

Mikey tilted his head curiously as he thought. He'd never been asked that question before, nor had reason to consider how old people 'looked'. Unaware of the potential danger he unintentionally flirted with, he shrugged, "I dunno, maybe forty?"

"For... forty?" April squeaked in shock. "I'm twenty nine! How could you think I'm _forty_?" She turned wildly around to face the amused foursome near the televisions. Raph and Casey were openly snickering, not even trying to contain their mirth. Leo and Donnie were at least trying. "You guys don't think I look forty, do you?"

When there was no immediate reply other than more laughter, April repeated in a dangerous tone that chilled everyone in the room to the bone, "Do you?" Her usually sweet voice dripped with menace.

"No... of course not, babe!" Casey was fast to respond. Leo and Donnie shook their heads rapidly in denial, all traces of amusement suddenly vanished, like ninja in the night. April levelled her death gaze at Raph and Casey quickly elbowed his friend in the side.

"You don't look a day over twenty, Ape!"

April's expression cleared a little and she turned back to the suddenly nervous Mikey. "What on _earth_ makes you think I am _forty_? Seriously?"

"Um..." Mikey shrugged again, "I don't really know many humans?" He grinned sheepishly, "Only you, your dad, Murakami-san and Master Splinter's photo from before? The bad guys don't count."

Leonardo's gaze at Mikey suddenly turned sharp and he opened his mouth as if to speak.

"Wait.. my dad? He's alive in your world?" April asked, her voice suddenly soft in surprise and wonder, "and you know him?"

"Well, yeah! He lived with us for a couple of weeks after we saved him from the Kraang."

"I haven't seen him since I was..." April shook her head as she trailed off.

"Imposter can't even get his story right!" Raph snidely remarked.

Mikey whirled to face Raph's direction. "I'm not making it up! It's true!" he retorted, hurt filling his face and voice.

"It doesn't matter, we should all go eat before the food gets cold." April said, quickly diffusing the situation as she started moving towards the kitchen. Mikey followed close behind.

"I'll go get Master Splinter." Leo offered as he and the rest also began to follow.

April fished out the plastic take-out containers from the bags Casey had dumped on the bench. She spread them over the table while Donnie got the plates and cutlery.

Mikey stared curiously at the food in the containers, reaching out a finger to poke at the nearest and his hand was lightly slapped away. "What's this stuff?"

"Chinese. Haven't you had it before?"

"Nope! Only pizza and..."

"Trust me," Donnie hurriedly interjected, "you don't want to know!" Noticing Mikey was about to continue regardless, Donatello hurriedly thought and asked, "Who is Murakami-san?"

Suddenly successfully distracted, Mikey beamed, "He's the owner and chef of this awesome Japanese restaurant that April took us to! After we saved him, he invented gyoza for us!"

As Leo and Splinter entered the dining area and sat down, Donnie shook his head, "That's not possible, Michelangelo. Gyoza has been around for decades and has its origins nearly two thousand years ago in China as jiaozi."

"They had pizza gyoza around back then?" Mikey's eyes were wide with wonder.

"Um... not really..."

Conversation continued throughout the meal, until finally April expressed interest wondering what their counterparts looked like.

"They look normal." Mikey blinked, confused at the question. "Not like you guys."

Donnie snapped his fingers, remembering the picture he had spent much of the day trying to put out of his mind. "Why don't you show that group photo from your T-phone?" At Michelangelo's obvious confusion, Donnie added explaining, "I saw it earlier when I was setting your T-phone to work with our network."

"Oh!" Mikey dug out the phone from his belt, deftly searching the menus for the photo before handing it straight to Donatello.

Donnie gingerly took the phone, refusing to actually look at it again and passed it straight on quickly enough to earn a sharp glance from Leo.

"April got Casey to take that photo a couple weeks back, just after we met him. Then she sent it to the rest of us." Mikey explained as the phone made its rounds.

"Do you have a picture of me too?" Casey asked, passing the phone on.

"Nuh, only just met Casey and he's more Raph and April's friend." Mikey shook his head.

Still avoiding looking towards the T-phone, Donnie spoke up softly, "Casey's caller I.D. photo."

"Oh yeah! That's right!" Mikey exclaimed, snatching the phone back from Leo and searching it up. With a grin and a flourish, he passed the T-phone back to Casey.

Casey's eyebrows rose and he whistled. "No wonder you think me and Ape are old."

April turned to Casey, mock indignation filling her features and slapped him on his nearest arm. "Casey Jones! You watch your mouth!"

A couple of hours later as April and Casey were about to leave, Casey tossed a mischievous grin in Raph's direction before turning to Mikey and asking, "So Mikey, are you the Battle Nexus Champion in yer world too?"

"Is that a video game?"

- . - . -

Donatello had finished programming the lair's security system to recognise and accept Michelangelo and had thus far shown him three times how to unlock and open the doors from each side. He closed his eyes as he rubbed his temples, feeling a headache starting to come on strongly and contemplated going for coffee and headache pills. Suppressing a sigh, Donnie spoke up, trying to keep the strain in his voice hidden. "For the next few times when you go in or out, come and get Leo or myself to help you. Once you actually do it a couple of times, you'll find it easy enough to operate."

"Says you, Donnie but okay." Mikey nodded. "Why does it have to be so complicated anyway?"

"Because we have had our lair found and attacked before. This is our third home in nearly five years. We'd like to avoid being found and forced to find yet another home." Donnie explained, remembering how much of a pain the whole ordeal was; having to find a new habitable place that was appropriate enough to turn into a home and trying to salvage as much as possible from previous domiciles. Not to mention just plain having to replace most of their belongings in the first place and doing all the work just to make it liveable. He shook his head, remembering how much trouble he had had with the electricity alone in this place. "Suitable locations for a home within the sewers are far and few between."

"Oh, makes sense..." Mikey said quietly.

Donnie turned and saw Raph lounging over near the televisions. One of them was on but the volume was silent as Raph stared, barely paying any attention to the game. This time of night it was probably only a replay anyway, Donnie mused. He walked towards his brother, clearing his throat a little to announce his presence, not that he actually needed to, Donnie realised as Raph turned his head at his approach. "Any idea where Leo has disappeared to? I thought we were leaving soon."

Grunting, Raph shot a quick scowl in Michelangelo's direction as the other-dimensional turtle followed Donnie over, looking as though there were many places he would rather be right now. "Fearless went to talk to Master Splinter about somethin' just after Case and Ape left."

Donnie hadn't heard anything about that and his curiosity was peaked. "Any idea what about?"

Raph's eyes narrowed in annoyance, "No reason he'd bother to tell me anythin'"

Leo coughed lightly, letting Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo know he was there as he otherwise approached them silently. "I wasn't keeping anything from anyone, Raph. I just didn't want to get anyone's hopes up unnecessarily."

The other three trained their eyes on Leonardo. "Hopes 'bout what?" Raph asked.

"Well... after talking to Master Splinter, I have both good news and bad news." Leo explained cautiously. "Casey's question earlier made me think of an option to help Michelangelo that was staring us in the face all along." He nodded towards Mikey and the younger turtle's eyes widened with hope even as his heartbeat sped up in excitement.

"Which question? He and April asked quite a number of them." Donnie ventured, remembering back to their friends' curiosity, curiosity he had to admit he shared. Honestly though, while he wanted to ask all the questions in the world, or at least those he felt he might get a coherent answer to, it was just too much for him to be near Michelangelo for too long at a time without other distractions keeping him grounded.

"About the Battle Nexus."

Donnie's eyes widened as he suddenly realised. "Of course! The Daimyo!"

Leo nodded. "The good news is that Master Splinter believes the Daimyo would be willing to help Michelangelo."

"And the bad?"

Leonardo sighed, "The borders of the Battle Nexus are closed currently and they will remain closed until the next tournament is ready to begin in nine and a half months time." Leo explained. "Apparently they seal off the way there around a year beforehand to all outsiders to give them plenty of time to prepare, reshape and rebuild many of the arenas and environments to keep it fresh."

"So I'm stuck here for _months_?" Mikey asked in disbelief.

"_Great_! We have to put up with... _him_ for _that_ long?"

"It's the worst case scenario. Don might still find another way to get him home sooner." Leo placated before turning to face Michelangelo. "But this does mean you will _definitely_ get home. This is a good thing; and Don won't have to kill himself trying to find a way to get you there."

Mikey nodded but his eyes moved to land briefly on Raph. It was good news but... he was going to be separated from those he loved for what felt like forever, not to mention to be stuck in hostile company. He missed his Raph so much... he was harsh and mean a lot but he cared, deeply. He didn't often let it show, especially in company but he always did when it was needed the most and Mikey could almost always tell regardless.

Leo looked around at both his brothers and Michelangelo. "If everyone is ready, let's go get this over and done with. Michelangelo, leave the skateboard behind." Leo commanded, noticing the wheeled ride tucked into the back of Michelangelo's belt.

"Do I have to? I'm really fast with it," Mikey explained, then added cheekily, "you guys couldn't even keep up with me."

"You're damn noisy with it too." Raph growled.

"You already know how I feel about this subject, Michelangelo. This is a mission. Leave it behind or tell us where to go and stay behind in the lair." Leo said sternly. "I will not jeopardise the mission, or the team, because you want to play. Your choice."

"It's not about playing..." Mikey muttered grumbling, "it's useful and Master Splinter's always saying anything can be a weapon but fine, I'll leave it." He placed the skateboard leaning against the wall by the door and the four turtles promptly left.

Leo led the way out of the sewers, coming up to the surface close to Central Park so as to give Mikey easy knowledge of where the lair was located. Mikey glanced around, getting his bearings quickly and pointing out the direction to the abandoned warehouse that had been a Kraang facility back home. After almost an hour they arrived, having stopped twice to foil a couple of random muggings they happened across.

Mikey went straight to one of the skylights which was smashed open, lined with jagged and dirty glass around the edges of the frame. "This is where we entered back home," he pointed out and moved to enter, only to be stopped by Leonardo who insisted on going in first just in case there was anyone hidden inside.

"Dude, there was no one here at all when I was here before." Mikey protested, though he stepped aside to allow Leo access regardless.

"That's as maybe but that was over a week ago. Anything could have changed in the meantime. Someone could have moved in since for all we know or even have just been out that particular night." Leo murmured quietly. "Also, keep your voice down, we are ninja and we have a job to do. The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves tonight."

Mikey swallowed hard, feeling chastised as he noticed Raph smirking maliciously at him out of the corner of his eye. He didn't let on that he noticed however.

Once they were inside the dusty and filthy old warehouse, the four turtles split into pairs and quickly canvassed the building. Leo kept Michelangelo with him while Raph and Donnie went off together, however no signs of life were found other than the usual evidence of pests. When they met up again about three quarters of a hour later, certain the place was empty, Mikey showed the other three where he and his brothers had had that battle and the small room he had entered before everything inexplicably changed. Donatello removed some scanning equipment from his ever-present duffel and began using it to try to find any unusual energy readings that he may be able to work with.

The longer they were there, the more uncomfortable and edgy Mikey felt. He really hated this place, this room especially. The memories and feelings of that night were coming back in full force, bubbling to the surface of his mind; his loneliness, his confusion over what had happened, why his brothers had seemingly abandoned him, even though he knew they would _never_ do such a thing, his fear that he might somehow have been wrong about them... He knew now what had really happened. He realised that when he grabbed the console that was present back home, though not here, to turn around it faster when he went to shelter from any weapons fire, that he had done _something_ that had caused all this. However, knowing what really happened didn't stop the memories and the doubts from surfacing. Didn't stop him from practically drowning in them. He glanced around the darkened, filthy room, shifting restlessly on his feet as he took in the very different sight from the brightly lit and clean room back home. He was so alone but he wasn't alone and for that he was kind of...

"_Stop fidgetin' already, damn you_!" Raph suddenly exploded, practically in Mikey's face causing him to flinch. "Could you be any _more_ annoying?"

Mikey swallowed and tentatively raised his eyes to meet the furious turtle's. He was starting to feel sick of this, he hated feeling like he had to be so careful. It wasn't in his nature. "Yeah... yeah, I could." He admitted before suddenly straightening and grinning disarmingly in Raph's face. "Actually, being annoying is one of my many specialities, along with naming things. Just ask my bros if you ever get to meet them!"

"Well, you better stop it here," Raph snarled, "unless you wanna find yerself out on yer shell!"

"Raphael!" Leo snapped, suddenly stepping into the space between Mikey and Raph. "We will not be throwing Michelangelo out, however much you dislike him! If you absolutely have a need to pick a fight, pick it with me instead."

Raph tossed Leo a contemptuous glare, "Just might have to do that. I'm gettin' sick and tired of the way you guys are tryin' to replace our little bro with... _this, _this cheap, carbon copy of him!" He curled his lip as he waved his hand dismissively towards Mikey, who had his eyes locked warily on Raph from behind Leo.

Raphael's words were met with a stunned silence from all three.

To be continued.


End file.
